Rakugaki

Rakugaki (落書) means “graffiti.” Writing on a temple is of course forbidden today. But old graffiti are precious witnesses: they are often the only trace of pilgrims before the Edo period. They were found during restorations, behind panels or under layers of paint.

• Temple 69, Kannon-ji: a monk from Hitachi (Ibaraki) in 1347, the oldest dated graffito by a visitor.
• Temple 80, Kokubun-ji (1513-1528) and temple 49, Jōdo-ji (1525-1531): “circuit of Shikoku, two companions,” “Namu Daishi Henjō Kongō.”
• Tosa-jinja shrine, former temple 30 (1571): a pilgrim traveling alone, with nowhere to sleep, spends the night there and leaves a poem.

Historians see in them the same gesture as the osamefuda: leaving a trace of one’s passage.