iPhone & Apple Watch
Sacred Steps
Ohenro
四国八十八ヶ所巡礼
Coming Summer 2026
Transform your daily walk into a sacred journey through Japan's 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage. Your real steps power the journey.
iPhone & Apple Watch
四国八十八ヶ所巡礼
Coming Summer 2026
Transform your daily walk into a sacred journey through Japan's 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage. Your real steps power the journey.
The Shikoku Henro is one of the world's great pilgrimages. For over a thousand years, pilgrims have walked around the island of Shikoku, visiting 88 sacred Buddhist temples established by the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) in the 9th century.
Tradition holds that Kobo Daishi walks alongside every pilgrim. Sacred Steps brings this experience to you wherever you are. Your walk to work becomes a walk between temples. Your evening stroll becomes a meditation on a mountain path.
Zen teachings, cultural insights, and hidden encounters unlock as you walk, turning each stage into a living story.
"You don't need to go to Japan. The journey comes to you."
Your first steps. Discover 23 temples with guided meditations, zen teachings, and cultural insights that unlock as you walk.
The rugged coast. Longer stages test your commitment as deeper teachings and hidden encounters reveal themselves.
Mountain temples. Advanced meditations unlock alongside historical discoveries and nature insights along the trail.
The final approach. Complete the 88-temple circuit, collect every stamp, and earn your digital pilgrim certificate.
A premium pilgrimage experience that transforms daily walking into meaningful progress through one of the world's great spiritual paths.
Your actual walking steps power the virtual pilgrimage. Apple HealthKit integration converts your movement to pilgrimage distance automatically.
Authentic temple history, cultural significance, and spiritual wisdom for every temple. Researched and verified against primary Japanese sources.
Receive teachings from the legendary monk Kukai at every stage. Over 900 unique entries of zen wisdom, nature insights, and cultural discoveries along the sacred path.
Invite friends and family to walk together. See each other's progress on the shared map and celebrate temple completions as a community.
Track daily water intake and watch it affect your virtual walking pace. Stay hydrated on the trail with smart reminders, weekly trends, and pace impact metrics.
Five meditation styles: breathing, seated zazen, walking kinhin, koan contemplation, and mindfulness awareness. Practice at each temple along the way.
Sacred Steps goes beyond simple step counting. Track your daily walking habits, build lasting streaks, and watch your consistency transform into pilgrimage progress.
A visual daily calendar shows your walking activity at a glance. Green days build into weeks and months of consistent practice.
Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly step history with beautiful charts. Track your average pace, total distance, and walking trends over time.
Set a personal step goal and celebrate with confetti when you hit it. Reaching your goal every day builds your streak and earns pilgrim patches.
Build daily walking streaks and hit milestones at 7, 30, 100, and 365 days. Your streak is displayed on your profile for fellow pilgrims to see.
Tradition holds that the monk Kukai—known as Kobo Daishi—walks alongside every pilgrim on the Shikoku trail. In Sacred Steps, he is your personal guide, delivering teachings at every stage of the journey.
From zen philosophy and nature observations to cultural insights and temple history, each piece of wisdom is carefully timed to your progress. The further you walk, the deeper the teachings become.
The traditional Shikoku pilgrimage is rarely walked alone. Invite friends and family to join your group, track each other's progress on the shared map, and celebrate temple completions as a community.
Private groups for friends or public communities. Up to 30 pilgrims per group.
See every member's position on the route with color-coded avatars in real time.
A live feed of group achievements, temple completions, and encouragements from your community.
Send themed messages of support — temple bells, prayers, and cheers for fellow walkers.
Get notified when members reach new temples and celebrate completions together.
See who's leading the pack with weekly step rankings and celebrate top walkers in your group.
Each of the 88 temples on the Shikoku pilgrimage has its own guided meditation, rooted in the spiritual energy of the sacred site. As you reach each temple, its meditation unlocks—a personal practice tied to the place and its history.
Five meditation techniques are woven throughout the journey: seated meditation, breathing awareness, walking meditation, awareness practice, and koan contemplation. The variety grows as you progress, keeping your practice fresh across 1,200 kilometers.
Pick from 29 hand-drawn avatars across four categories. Your avatar represents you on the map and in walking groups.
Collect over 30 unique patches across four categories: journey milestones, consistency streaks, wellness goals, and special seasonal achievements.
Check your progress, breathe, and stay inspired without reaching for your phone. The companion app puts your journey one glance away.
Dual progress rings show daily steps and stage progress at a glance. See your current temple and streak.
Track your stamp collection and see how far you've come across all 88 temples.
A fresh zen quote synced from your journey every day, right on your wrist.
Guided breathing with haptic feedback. Inhale, exhale, and find calm between temples.
Recent temple completions, milestones, and achievements synced from the iPhone app.
From beta testers around the world.
"This app completely changed my daily walks. I used to just zone out, but now I look forward to reaching the next temple. The wisdom teachings are beautiful and the detail in the temple history is incredible."
"毎晩妻と二人で散歩するのが日課です。グループ機能でお互いの進捗が見えるので、どちらかが新しいお寺に到着すると通知が届きます。おかげで散歩が何倍も楽しくなりました。"
"我在大学研究过日本佛教，这款应用内容的准确性和深度让我惊叹。弘法大师的教导非常真实，而且支持七种语言！这是一款用心之作。"
"I bought this to motivate me to walk more after knee surgery. Four months later I've hit my 10,000 step goal every day for 60 days straight. The streak tracker and patches keep me going. Best purchase I've made."
"Die App ist wunderschön gestaltet und komplett auf Deutsch verfügbar. Die Meditationen am Morgen vor dem Loslaufen sind mein neues Ritual geworden. Endlich eine Schritt-App mit Seele."
"四国に住んでいながら、まだお遍路を歩いたことがなかった。このアプリで毎日の通勤の歩数が巡礼の一歩になり、地元のお寺の歴史も学べる。感動しています。"
"Camino todos los días por el Paseo de Gracia y ahora cada paso tiene un propósito. La traducción al español es perfecta y las enseñanzas zen me ayudan a empezar el día con calma. Mi grupo de amigas y yo competimos por llegar al siguiente templo."
"Une application d’une rare élégance. Les méditations guidées avant chaque temple sont magnifiques, et le contenu sur le bouddhisme Shingon est d’une profondeur remarquable. C’est bien plus qu’un compteur de pas."
"No subscriptions, no ads, no data harvesting. Just a beautifully crafted walking experience. I appreciate that everything is included for one price. Rare to find these days."
No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. No ads. Just the complete pilgrimage.
Sacred Steps: Ohenro is a virtual pilgrimage app that transforms your daily walking into progress along the historic 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage in Japan. Your real-world steps (tracked via Apple HealthKit) are converted to virtual pilgrimage distance. As you walk, you unlock authentic temple content, zen teachings, cultural insights, and guided meditations at each of the 88 sacred temples.
Sacred Steps reads your step count from Apple Health — it does not run its own tracking in the background. Your iPhone already counts your steps throughout the day. When you open Sacred Steps, it pulls that data from Apple Health and converts it into pilgrimage distance (approximately 1,000 steps = 0.8 km). There is nothing extra running on your phone. Steps update in real time when walking with your iPhone. If you have an Apple Watch paired, there may be a short delay while Apple Health syncs and deduplicates data between your devices.
The Shikoku Henro is a 1,200-kilometer Buddhist pilgrimage route around the island of Shikoku in Japan, visiting 88 temples associated with the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi), who founded Shingon Buddhism in the 9th century. It is one of the few circular pilgrimages in the world, with a history spanning over 1,200 years.
Sacred Steps is $9.99 — a one-time purchase on the App Store. There are no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, and no ads. You get the complete 88-temple experience, all eight languages, walking groups, guided meditations, Apple Watch app, and every feature included. Free updates bring new content each year, including refreshed Daily Zen teachings and seasonal additions.
Everything is customizable to match your ideal pilgrimage experience. Toggle notifications, hydration tracking, meditation reminders, and walking group participation on or off independently. Want a quiet, distraction-free walk? Turn off notifications. Prefer the full interactive experience with community and guided practices? Enable everything. It's entirely up to you.
Not at all. Sacred Steps converts your steps from anywhere in the world into pilgrimage distance. Walking in your neighborhood, on a treadmill, around your office, or through a park all count. The beauty is that your everyday movement becomes a sacred journey.
It depends on your daily step count. At 8,000 steps per day, the 1,125 km journey takes roughly 6 months. At 12,000 steps per day, about 4 months. There's no time limit and the pilgrimage emphasizes consistency over speed.
Eight languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Simplified. All temple content, zen teachings, cultural insights, and interface text are fully localized in each language.
Absolutely. Your health data never leaves your device without explicit consent. Step data is read from Apple HealthKit and processed locally. We don't collect, store, or transmit your health information. Optional iCloud sync uses Apple's end-to-end encryption.
Yes! You can create or join walking groups of up to 30 people. See each other's progress on a shared map, celebrate when friends reach new temples, and encourage each other along the path. Groups can be private for friends and family, or public for the wider pilgrimage community.
Sacred Steps is currently available on iOS only. An Android version is in development and coming soon. If you'd like to be notified when it launches, reach out to us at hello@losttheory.app and we'll add you to the list.
No. Every step you take in your daily life counts automatically — walking to work, around the grocery store, on a treadmill, or playing with your kids. Sacred Steps simply takes the steps your iPhone is already counting and shows you how far those steps would carry you along the Shikoku pilgrimage route. You don't need to do anything differently. Just live your life, and your journey unfolds.
Lost Theory is a small studio based in La Jolla, California and Tokyo, Japan, on a mission to design interactive walking experiences that bring the world's great pilgrimages and historic trails to life. We believe every step you take can be meaningful, and that technology should deepen your connection to the world rather than distract from it. Sacred Steps: Ohenro is our first journey, with the Camino de Santiago, the Silk Road, and more on the way.
Sacred Steps: Ohenro is the first of many virtual pilgrimages from Lost Theory.
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