Chapter 6 Pilgrimage Day 8

Diary of the White Bush Clover

Day 8 (13 October) Ichinomiya to Nagoya

Today I plan to arrive in Nagoya. It has been a week since I left my home. Thanks to Harami-san, who is looking after my children, I am free now because of you, and my family also helped me very much. I hope they are not too inconvenienced by my absence. Saigyo, a samurai who became a monk, left his home to walk with the Buddha. He became very famous but he also thought of his family as he was walking.

I concentrated on walking east but thoughts of my family still came to mind. I looked down at my feet, walking step by step. Suddenly I heard the noise of the city. Looking up I found that I was already in the city. The smog looked like dust in the air. I had been walking in the countryside so I hated the noise and polluted air.

At noon I arrived at Nagoya Castle. Walking on the pebbled path made the soles of my feet hurt. I had walked four hours without any rest. I took a break in a small shop where I bought milk and bread and ate them. The girl who worked in the shop had a sharp tongue and some of the customers seemed timid and nervous. Her hair and makeup were done nicely but she was not kind. Looking at the situation for a while I could see that it was due to the attitude of the sempai, the supervisor, who was also not kind. She should have trained the workers with her heart.

I sat in the park and wrote letters to everybody. Then I began walking again but I misread the map and walked away from the temple by mistake. The town looked like Tōkyō, with many shops selling clothes and goods. I did not want to look at them at all. I just felt as if I were wearing the black robes of a monk.

At last I arrived at Kenkoku-ji. The temple had been rebuilt recently and looked like a modern building. I thought it must have been a great undertaking of labor and finances for the people connected with this temple. The priest and his wife were very kind, warm people. Before I left on my journey I had received an express letter from them saying it was all right to stay at the temple so I already felt their kindness. I prayed in the temple and then the wife made dinner for me and served it in a special room usually used only by the head priest. I was deeply grateful because I felt perhaps I was not worthy of such an honor. But they allowed me to use this special room so I gave thanks to Buddha.

After dinner I took my notebook to the priest and asked him to put it on the altar in the temple, as I always did. The notebook contained the names and dates of the people I knew who had died in the war as well as my purpose to include everyone who had died. The priest explained about the temple’s honzon, the principle image, and prayed over my notebook.