Tsutsui Rinnosuke and His Father, Fukuji
A road of prayer walked at the cost of everything.
The Hakoguruma at Byodoji
At first glance, the hakoguruma preserved at Byodoji looks like an old wooden box. But in its worn grain is the prayer of Tsutsui Rinnosuke, a blacksmith from Tosa Jizojimura, and of his father Fukuji, etched there in 1923.
It originally had three wheels and was built so that Rinnosuke could continue the Shikoku pilgrimage while lying inside it. It became the vessel that carried a family's hope.
Rinnosuke Falls Ill
In 1921, when he was thirty-one, Rinnosuke was struck by a spinal illness. Paralysis spread through his lower body and then further upward. His father Fukuji sought out doctors and every treatment he could find, but the condition only deepened.
Fukuji then used everything he had as both a blacksmith and a father to build a hakoguruma in which his son could lie. Starting from Kiyotakiji, temple thirty-five, the two began their pilgrimage together.
There is nothing left now but to entrust ourselves to Kobo Daishi.
from an old photograph preserved at the temple
What Happened at Byodoji
In October 1923, after moving through Ehime, Kagawa, and Tokushima, father and son arrived at Byodoji, temple twenty-two of the pilgrimage. They stayed for four weeks, drank the sacred water associated with Kobo Daishi, and received prayer and blessing from the chief priest of the time, Taniguchi Shinryo.
Little by little, sensation is said to have returned to Rinnosuke's body, until at last he could stand with the help of a kongozue staff. In deep gratitude, the two dedicated the hakoguruma that had sustained his life to Yakushi Nyorai, the principal Buddha of Byodoji.
Chief Priest Taniguchi Shinryo
A Prayer Still Told Today
In recent years, mistaken stories about hakoguruma have sometimes circulated. But the hakoguruma preserved at Byodoji was not a device for abandoning the unwanted. It is the record of a father and son who refused to surrender hope.
