Read, reflect, pray
Poetry and pilgrimage songs
Songs in myth, poems by Buddhist teachers, and songs of pilgrimage. Read who speaks, whom the words honor, and how each poem is connected with a shrine or temple.
All 27 poems have an English meaning and background, alongside the Japanese poem and a Roman-letter reading aid. A pilgrimage song does not become a mantra exclusive to its temple’s principal image.
- Homage to MonjuAuthor not named
- Spring sunlightAuthor not named
- Even those who turn awayAuthor not named
- From those distant daysAuthor not named
- From long agoAuthor not named
- Across the six realmsAuthor not named
- Within the sacred rocksAuthor not named
- Where the morning star risesAuthor not named
- To save wandering beingsAuthor not named
- Wishing for the Pure LandAuthor not named
- Eightfold clouds riseSusanoo, in the Kojiki
- The red jewelToyotamabime, in the Kojiki
- Birds of the open seaHoori, in the Kojiki
- When the east wind blowsSugawara no Michizane
- On this journeySugawara no Michizane
- Deep into KamijiSaigyō
- The first Horse dayFujiwara no Mitsutoshi
- Wind in the streamside oaksFujiwara no Ietaka
- The sixth month’s purificationTraditional poem; author not named
- How wondrousJien
- The moonlightTraditionally attributed to Hōnen
- Spring flowersTraditionally attributed to Dōgen
- Buddhas of unsurpassed awakeningTraditionally attributed to Saichō
- Pine wind at KiyomizuAuthor not named
- Waves of FudarakuAuthor not named
- Homage to YakushiAuthor not named
- Looking into the moonlit nightAuthor not named