The Encounter with an “Unnecessary Road”

I have updated the portfolio for my ongoing project, People Pass, the Path Remains, removing a considerable number of works, adding new ones, and making the overall composition more concise. I would be grateful if you might visit the portfolio page.

This project, centered on ancient paths, has in recent months explored the pilgrimage routes of the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage as one of its themes. During a visit last month to Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture, I encountered a path that felt almost like a revelation. It was a mountain trail on the Goshikidai plateau known as the Negoroji Path, connecting the 81st temple, Shiromine-ji, and the 82nd, Negoro-ji.

Naturally, a road—even one known as a “pilgrimage route”—is not used exclusively by pilgrims; it is also shared by ordinary people, and even by bicycles and cars. In other words, a road as infrastructure is inherently multifunctional, open to all. And yet, this particular path—stretching just over five kilometers through the mountains—serves only a single purpose: to connect one temple to the next. Those who pass along this narrow, roughly worn trail, as if carved out by footsteps alone, are limited to pilgrims, a few hikers, and the occasional photographer such as myself.

As I made my way along it, taking more than two hours to walk and photograph, I encountered only a handful of people, despite the path being located on the outskirts of Takamatsu, one of Shikoku’s major cities. In a modern world that leaves little room for emptiness—so often defined by efficiency and constant movement—this journey offered a rare experience of time and space. The photograph accompanying this post was taken along that very path. It is my intention to continue the remaining journeys of this project with such “unnecessary” roads as a central subject.