Concluding comments and new challenges

This chapter emphasises that the Shikoku pilgrimage is not a singular transient event but a recurrent thread in the lives of pilgrims, many of whom plan to continue doing it until they die or are physically unable. They often also do other pilgrimages and have a primary identity as pilgrims. Pilgrimage is unending while the image of life itself as pilgrimage permeates popular understandings of the Shikoku pilgrimage. We introduce a Shikoku pilgrimage T-shirt that symbolically reflects this view of pilgrimage as infinite and unending, arguing that such themes are not unique to Shikoku, although they have rarely been discussed in studies of pilgrimage. Researchers need to look more closely at the issues discussed in this book, for Shikoku pilgrimage shows that pilgrimage is not a transient activity but a life course that pilgrims view as unending.