Return to Zero: A Retreat into Sacred Tenkawa
This journey is not about gaining something. It is a time to let go of everything once - and return to your original inner baseline.
Departing from Osaka, you travel to Gojo Shinmachi, a historic post town where pilgrims once prepared their bodies and minds on their way to Yoshino and Kumano.
A quiet evening spent among the preserved streets of this Important Preservation District for Traditional Buildings, along with a stay at a heritage inn, gently slows the pace of your thoughts and brings your inner state into alignment.
On the following day, you visit Tenkawa Daibenzaiten Shrine, a sacred place long revered by practitioners of Shugendo and by those connected to the performing arts. Here, you will engage in the experience of returning to “zero”—letting go of the acquired self shaped by roles, responsibilities, expectations, and fears, and restoring your being to its original state. Amid the sound of water, the presence of wind, and subtle resonance, you rediscover a state where there is nothing to pray for—where you are already complete. When you return to the city, the world may appear unchanged, yet the standard from which you stand within it will have transformed.