Ajari Hoshino Endo leaves Sekizan-zen-in during the longest stage of the circuit, 60km Great Circuit of Kyoto

Buddhist monk Hoshino Endo on Sunday became the 50th monk since 1585 to complete the 千日回峰行 (Sen-nichi kaihougyo) 1,000-day devotional mountain-circling ordeal on Mt. Hiei straddling Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, earning the title of Dai-Ajari. I live at the bottom of Mt. Hiei and am a registered unofficial member of the support group, since I occasionally came out  at 3 a.m. to welcome him down off the mountain in the longer stages, along with the stalwart members who did it every night.

The 1,000-day ordeal is broken into 10 sets of 100 straight days of circumambulation (it’s a real word!) of the sacred Mt. Hiei, with one or two sets per yearso as to give time for reflection and other duties. The first 300 days, 100 days per year from March-July, he walks a 25km devotional circuit around the ridgetops, setting off at 1 a.m. in his white robe and boat-shaped straw hat (it indeed knocks branches aside like the bow of a boat), with straw waraji sandals, a lantern and walking stick, rain or shine. He visits approximately 260 prayer spots, performs the ritual words and gestures assigned to each,  and  returns at breakfast time for his bowl of rice and begins his regular duties, sleeping at 8 p.m. and waking around midnight.

Many monks do the 100-day circuit, but they must petition and receive permission if they want to devote the next several years to the 1,000-day circuit, and this is after spending 100 days praying at, among many other places, the gravestones of monks who failed and died, or took their own lives with the dagger and rope carried by the monk. He wears funerary white, as he has set himself apart from the world. There is no quitting but completion or death.

After 700 days, the monk is secluded in the main hall of Mudoji Temple atop Mt. Hiei, for nine days without eating, drinking, sleeping, or lying down, as he performs mantra and sutra recitations. If he survives, he is given the title of Ajari and commits to spending the remainder of his life for the benefit of others. Ironically, successful monks prepare for this ordeal not by eating more to store energy, but by tapering off their already meager vegetarian diet to almost nothing. Photographs of a monk who survived this stage show a very gaunt visage indeed.

From Day 701-800, the course is doubled to 50km per day, as he must also descend 850 meters from the mountain each night to the northeast corner of Kyoto and perform a devotional circuit of Sekizan-zen-in Temple at 3 a.m., then climb back up on trails no wider than a footpath, often in pouring rain.

This temple circuit in my neighborhood is where I joined him on several nights to offer encouragement and do the circuit with him and the regular member of the support group, the Sokusho-ko, the “Obstacle-Removing Society”. To keep this schedule, the monk sleeps even less. He takes a meal break at the temple, one which seems meager for an “endurance athlete.” Typically, he ate two rice balls, about 250 ml of milk, coffee and a cheap dessert cake like one finds at a convenience store. Somehow, he keeps his weight up.

Ajari Hoshino Endo leaves Sekizan-zen-in during the longest stage of the circuit, 60km

Worn out waraji reed pilgrim's sandals hang as mementos at Sekizan-zen-in Temple

I also joined in on the 801-900 circuit, 京都大廻り(Kyoto o-mawari) the great circumambulation of Kyoto, in which the monk must descend the mountain and circle the city of Kyoto clockwise for a total of about 60 km. The next day he reverses and goes back up the mountain and the alternate schedule continues for 100 days.

It was quite a thrill to join in this an witness it. Amazingly, he almost never seemed to be  struggling or in pain, keeping a serene and benevolent demeanor at all times I was in his presence. The only time I could see through to some pain was when he changed the rough straw sandals. He soaked his ravaged feet briefly, and it was obviously somewhat painful. As a supporter, I would receive a little blessing, a knock on the head with his buddhist rosary, before he headed back up the mountain (Days 701-800) or out into the city (Days 801-900)

Immediately upon completion of the 900th day on July 5, He begins the final set of 100 days, this time on the original mountaintop 25km circuit. This is what  was just finished this weekend, and yesterday there was a ceremony at Kyoto’s Old Imperial Palace to commemorate his completion and ascendancy. I was invited but couldn’t go. He is only the 50 monk to successfully complete the ordeal since 1585. The practice is older than that, but little is known about the early history, because records were lost when military ruler Oda Nobunaga burned down Enryakuji temple complex atop Mt. Hiei.