Priest making 600-km disaster pilgrimage

[AsahinaKimi]

Renjo Miura, a Nichiren Buddhist priest, prays for disaster victims as he walks in Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture.

Masatoshi Yamada / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate--A Buddhist priest of the Nichiren sect has been making a 600-kilometer pilgrimage on foot to console the souls of those who died in the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

Renjo Miura, 43, a priest in the Miyagino district of Sendai, began his journey on June 18, the disaster's 100-day anniversary, in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, one of the affected parts of the Kanto region.

With fellow priests joining him on different sections of his pilgrimage route, Miura been walking north along the Pacific coastline through devastated areas, skirting the no-entry zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, while reciting passages from the sutras of the Nichiren sect for the sake of the repose of the disaster victims in places covered with rubble.

Miura is scheduled to arrive in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, the destination of his pilgrimage, on Saturday. He plans to chant a final sutra at Jodogahama beach in the city.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110726005253.htm
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