This is a second post on some of the rivers that must be crossed while walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage. The first post can be found here. This first photo is the Hiwasa River where it reaches the sea at Hiwasa in Tokushima, home to temple #23, Yakuo-ji from where the photo is taken.
According at a no longer extant 16th Century guidebook there were 488 rivers to cross on the route, though this may be a symbolic number as it also claims there were 488 hills to be climbed. The second photo shows the Kaifu River at Kaifu, Tokushima.
Many rivers had to be forded, some had paying ferries. Chozen, a monk walking the pilgrimage in the mid 17th Century, recorded instances of boats left for the use of pilgrims, but also having to beg for rides from passing boats. This third photo is the Shishikui River in Shishikui, Tokushima.
By the end of the 17th Century the pilgrimage had become much more popular and a guide book written by Shinnen, the Michishirube, gave detailed instructions on how and where to cross the rivers and by then there were many more free boats available for pilgrims.
The last two photos are unknown rivers on the east coast of the Muroto Peninsula, just inside Kochi.
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At one existing river crossing on the Kumano Kodo, there is a sign with a mobile number written on it. The ferryman will then come down and row you across.
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