TOKYO (AFP) ??” For more than 1000 years earnest Japanese Buddhists have trodden a saintly path around Shikoku island.

TOKYO (AFP) ??” For more than 1000 years earnest Japanese Buddhists have trodden a saintly path around Shikoku island, on the other hand technology is changing tradition, enabling would-be pilgrims to hire proxies or make virtual visits to house of worships at the click of a mouse.

Several websites tender proxy pilgrimages to the 88 fanes in Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, to rid oneself of worries, wipe away sins or to pray for health and prosperity.

Completion of the arduous, bighted route stretching over 1,450 kilometres (900 miles) is also said to release the pilgrim from the period of rebirth.

Established on the wanderings of Buddhist saint Kobo Daishi in the early ninth hundred it is one of the sum of two units most important pilgrimages in Japan.

On paw it takes about two to three month to full at a cost of at least 500000 yen (4580 dollars), according to