(Japan Anthropology Workshop Series) (2007) | PDF | Pilgrimage | Camino De Santiago
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Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
This book examines journeys of self discovery in Japan and what they provide for those who embark on them. From spiritual quests to established pilgrimages, it considers a wide range of historical and contemporary examples, all of which help to build a picture of how such quests form part of individual and collective efforts to find a meaningful,
grounded existence, physical health and emotional balance. It goes on to consider notions of physical and metaphysical space and journeys towards altered states, and of the past and present search for the liminal as well as for fulfilment.
It also explores new forms of pilgrimage as well as highly contemporary topics such as theme park tourism, journeys for artistic inspiration, and travel experience as a learning process, all of which have often been compared to pilgrimage. The book brings to attention the need for a detailed, diverse, anthropological understanding of quests, showing how they serve to reward, change lives and provide for individual and collective well-being. In the variety of ways in which such quests meet the needs of those who undertake them, it concludes that spiritual journey in Japan may need to be reconsidered outside a framework of notions Western tradition usually associates with the term ‘religion’.
Maria Rodríguez del Alisal is President of the Fundación Instituto de Japonología and Head of the Japanese Language Department in the Official School of Languages in Madrid, Spain.
Her research interests include the transmission of socio-cultural values
through religious festivals, advertising and mono-zukuri (the manufacture of objects).
Peter Ackermann is Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
His research interests include Japanese language, education and schooling, communication processes and the development and transmission of cultural values and assumptions.
Dolores P.Martinez is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology with reference to Japan at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. Her research interests have included maritime anthropology, religion, gender, tourism and the mass media in Japan.
Series editor:
Joy Hendry, Oxford Brookes University
Editorial Board:
Pamela Asquith, University of Alberta
Eyal Ben Ari, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hirochika Nakamaki, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
Kirsten Refsing, University of Copenhagen
Wendy Smith, Monash University
Founder Member of the Editorial Board:
Jan van Bremen, University of Leiden
A Japanese View of Nature
The world of living things
Kinji Imanishi
Translated by Pamela J Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and
Hiroyuki Takasaki
Edited and introduced by Pamela J.Asquith
Japan’s Changing Generations
Are young people creating a new society?
Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White
The Care of the Elderly in Japan
Yongmei Wu
Community Volunteers in Japan
Everyday stories of social change
Lynne Y.Nakano
Nature, Ritual and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
Arne Røkkum
Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan
The Japanese introspection practice of Naikan
Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
Dismantling the East-West Dichotomy
Essays in Honour of Jan van Bremen
Edited by Joy Hendry and Heung Wah Wong
Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
Edited by Maria Rodríguez del Alisal, Peter Ackermann and Dolores P.Martinez
Pilgrimages and Spiritual
Quests in Japan
Edited by
Maria Rodríguez del Alisal,
Peter Ackermann and
Dolores P.Martinez
==
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
Contents
List of contributors viii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface x
Introduction xi
MARIA RODRÍGUEZ DEL ALISAL AND PETER ACKERMANN
1
PART I Pilgrimages, paths and places
1 Travel as spiritual quest in Japan 3
PETER ACKERMANN
2 Pilgrimage roads in Spain and Japan 10
JESUS GONZÁLEZ VALLES
3 Pilgrimage, space and identity: Ise (Japan) and Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
SYLVIE GUICHARD-ANGUIS
4 The concept of pilgrimage in Japan 25
SACHIKO USUI
5 The daily life of the henro on the island of Shikoku during the Edo Period: A mirror of Tokugawa society
NATHALIE KOUAMÉ
6 Strangers and pilgrimage in village Japan
TEIGO YOSHIDA
61
PART II Reconstructing the quest
7 Current increase in walking pilgrims 63
EIKI HOSHINO
8 New forms of pilgrimage in Japanese society 71
MARIA RODRÍGUEZ DEL ALISAL
9 Old gods, new pilgrimages? A whistle stop tour of Japanese 80
international theme parks
JOY HENDRY
90
PART III The quest for the magic, liminal or non-ordinary
10 Pilgrimages in Japan: How far are they determined by deep-lying 92
assumptions?
PETER ACKERMANN
11 Agari-umāi, or the Eastern Tour: A Ryūkyūan royal ritual and its 104
transformations
PATRICK BEILLEVAIRE
12 Takiguchi Shūzō and Joan Miró 117
PILAR CABAÑAS
13 Hiroshima, mon amour: An inner pilgrimage to catharsis 126
ANTONIO SANTOS
135
PART IV The quest for vocational fulfilment
14 The ‘initiation rites’ and ‘pilgrimages’ of local civil servants in the age of 137
internationalization
HIROCHIKA NAKAMAKI
15 Travel ethnography in Japan 146
JAN VAN BREMEN
16 A Japanese painter’s quest: Suda Kunitarō's journey to Spain 160
ROSALIA MEDINA BERMEJO
Pilgrimage and experience: An afterword 166
DOLORES P.MARTINEZ
Index 172
Contributors
Peter Ackermann is Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg,
Germany.
Maria Rodríguez del Alisal is President of the Fundación Instituto de Japonología and
head of the Japanese Language Department in the Official School of Languages in
Madrid, Spain.
Patrick Beillevaire is Director of the Japan Research Center, École des Hautes Études en
Sciences Sociales, Centre de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
Rosalia Medina Bermejo is Profesora Interina de Japones de la Escuela Oficial de
Idiomas in Barcelona, Spain.
Jan van Bremen (†) was Anthropologist in the Department of Japanese and Korean
Studies at Leiden University, Netherlands.
Pilar Cabañas is Professor at the Faculty of Geography and History of Madrid
Complutense University, Spain.
Sylvie Guichard-Anguis is Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique and a member of the research group ‘Space and Culture’ in the
Department of Geography, Paris-Sorbonne Paris 4, France.
Joy Hendry is Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Europe Japan
Research Centre at Oxford Brookes University, UK.
Eiki Hoshino is Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and currently Director of Taishō
University, Tokyo, Japan.
Nathalie Kouamé is Maître de Conferences, Institut Nationale des Langues et
Civilisations Orientales, Paris.
Dolores P.Martinez is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology with Reference to Japan at the
School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK.
Hirochika Nakamaki is Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka,
Japan.
Antonio Santos is Librarian in the Library of Universidad de Santander and Profesor
Contratado de la Cátedra de Cine at the University of Valladolid, Spain.
Sachiko Usui was, until retirement, Research Co-ordinator and Advisor at the
International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto; then
Professor at Hakuhō University, Japan.
Jesus Gonzáles Valles lived as a missionary in Japan from 1955 to 1976. Since 1977 he
teaches Oriental Phenomenology at the Institute of Philosophy and Theology ‘Santo
Tomas’ in Madrid, Spain.
Teigo Yoshida is Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University, Japan, and Hon. Japanese
Representative of the Japan Anthropology Workshop.
Acknowledgements
The editors wish to thank Joy Hendry for her help and strong encouragement at every
step in the creation of this book. They also thank Ted Bestor for his invaluable input at
the start of the project.
Note from the editor
Japanese and Chinese names in this book are given in Japanese style, with surnames first.
When a Japanese author is publishing in English, as is the case in this volume, the given
name appears first.
Preface
This book brings a second collection of papers into the Japan Anthropology Workshop
Series, this time addressing an old favourite of both anthropology and Japanese Studies,
namely the nature and variety of pilgrimage and other spiritual quests. It was initiated
again with a successful and productive Japan Anthropology Workshop meeting, held in
the popular goal of European pilgrimage at Santiago de Compostela, where the
surroundings added a special atmosphere to our deliberations. An immediate theme
became one of comparison between Japan and Spain, reflected in several of the papers,
and offering a chance to exercise some good, old-fashioned anthropological
methodology. It also caused a few editorial problems that have taken time to overcome,
but the finished result represents a minor triumph of international collaboration and
Japanese-style persistence, and all the editors—including Ted Bestor, who gracefully
withdrew when Europe became again too much for the New World—should be
commended for their resilience!
Another theme that gets an immediate and appropriate mention from the start of the
book is the extent to which pilgrimage in Japan can be regarded as a ‘religious’ activity.
This can be a thorny issue, as it raises the broader question of what exactly is meant by
the term ‘religion’, and much ink has been spilled by anthropologists and others in
examining Japanese practice within the semantic range of a word that grew out of quite
different traditions. The editors have wisely moved gently away from that question by
inviting the reader instead to start their own journey by considering the polysemous
nature of the other title term of ‘quest’. They go on to discuss some of the historical
factors that have influenced ideas of the transcendental that may be sought in its spiritual
manifestation. The extent to which suffering is a necessary part of pilgrimage is also
raised here, and interesting ideas thrown out about how newer theories of tourism may in
fact reflect a practice much older in Japan.
The papers themselves take these and other issues and examine them in a range of
contexts that may seem surprisingly wide on first examination. Can art, film, theme parks
and the initiation of new civil servants all really find a place in the examination of this
subject? So it would seem, and the deeper understandings that an anthropological
approach can bring have produced some new and exciting insights into this widely
studied field. In the now established tradition of the Japan Anthropology Workshop
Series, we offer papers that dig beneath the surface, peel off and examine layers of
cultural and historical wrapping, and ultimately open the eyes of our readers to new ways
of thinking. In this case, the papers even offer contributions to a deeper understanding of
European traditions as well as the usual Japanese ones, and they also bring new insights
to the broader study of pilgrimage and spiritual quest in whatever discipline it may be
addressed.
Joy Hendry
Introduction
Maria Rodríguez del Alisal and Peter Ackermann
Spiritual quests for physical health and material well-being
In his discussion of the rapid social changes that have been experienced by contemporary
Japanese youths, Nishiyama Akira (2000) points to a shift in religious attitudes and in the
function of religious organizations in Japan. The old pattern, says Nishiyama, can be
described as the quest for gense riyaku (this-worldly favours) granted by transcendental
(something beyond, holy or sacred) powers. The favours asked consisted of the very
qualities fundamental for securing well-being, essentially, good health and material gain.
In particular, this would often include protection from natural disasters, successful
marriage and childbirth, but also could involve hopes for a higher income, or academic
achievement. Well-being in the old sense that Nishiyama is thinking of, we may note,
was not a responsibility of the state, nor linked to what insurance companies cover. To
seek gense riyaku in shrines and temples (the latter being institutions thought of as
transmitting distinctly Buddhist teachings), and to invest time and energy to reach these
institutions, was a natural part of organization of everyday life.
If we asked people, however, in what way they considered visits to shrines or temples
and the quest for gense riyaku to be ‘religious’ acts, their answers would often include
puzzled comments like, ‘No, we are not Christian’ (implying that religion meant
Christianity); or, ‘We believe in Shintō and Buddhism at the same time and enjoy
Christian marriage ceremonies too’ (implying that religion was a rather abstract term
standing for any institution or ceremony promising to fulfil a wish or provide happiness).
In other words, the quest for gense riyaku in Japan, although essentially involving an
approach to transcendental powers, should not frivolously be associated with standard
Judeo-Christian definitions of religion. This book will follow the borderline along what
might or might not be called ‘religious’,1 its focus, however, is on the more neutral
concept of ‘quest’ with all its implications of ‘seeking’. For reasons discussed below, one
very distinct type of quest, namely pilgrimage, will form the starting point for the
contributions in this volume.
To return to Nishiyama: as mentioned above, he opens our eyes to a shift in the
function of what he calls religious attitudes and organizations in Japan. This shift he sees
as first revealing itself in the early 1970s. Whereas the old pattern he described was that
of the quest for gense riyaku, the new pattern he defines as gense ridatsu (escape from
this-worldly affairs). Indeed, many more sober persons in present-day Japan will shudder
at the thought of religion, which, since the attacks on the underground by the new
religion Aum, they associate with dangerous, even criminal, ways of escaping from social
and political responsibility and following charismatic founders or leaders.2
The beginning of the twenty-first century is perhaps a good point in time to step back
and reflect upon how both individuals and groups in Japanese society set out on quests,
which involve sacrifice in the form of time and energy (and money) spent.
Are quests becoming increasingly gense ridatsu? How is the older, more established
concept of gense riyaku reflected in the quests undertaken in modern Japan? What do
historical patterns for Japanese quests suggest if we compare them with more recent
trends in spending time, energy and money in search of something ‘liminal’, something
outside normal, everyday life? Have quests in Japan really changed if we look at their
most fundamental components? And does the aspect of gense riyaku, central as it
certainly has been for hundreds of years, really fully explain what quests in Japan are all
about; does it suffice to define them as the search for inner harmony with the world and
attempts to fathom and embrace reality so as to bring emotions in line with the
unalterable facts of life?
This also is a good point in time to reflect upon the assumptions about what it means
to be religious by taking a closer look at the specific Japanese relationship to what in
Western intellectual discourse has been—for hundreds of years—labelled as the contrast
between sacred on the one hand and profane on the other.
Is such a contrast meaningful in Japan? If it is not, then how can quests that pursue
visions and desires with great concentration and dedication, and which are the very
opposite of the quotidian, be more adequately understood? Where does a quest for
obtaining this-worldly benefits such as health and riches link up with a more
psychological level, namely the quest for inner change and becoming a new self? How
far and in what way is the transcendental a separate sacred realm that is felt to necessarily
exist in order to support the desire for a change of circumstances?
Finally, this is also a good point in time to draw attention to the polysemous nature of
any type of quest that follows a recognizable organizational pattern.
Western concepts of Japanese culture are, as a rule, still strongly shaped by
conclusions drawn from the observation of seemingly quite fixed patterns of behaviour,
including rituals defined as religious. It is therefore a very welcome fact that this volume
is able to include several contributions discussing how quests (and specifically
pilgrimages) also form individual experiences through which those involved are able to
construct their own sense of what they are doing. At a time when an increasing demand is
being made for less simplistic accounts of and fewer sweeping comparisons between
societies, the description of individuals’ construction of a sense of self is a very essential
task which needs to be assumed by anthropologists who are involved in, and capable of,
directly approaching individuals through what they say and what they have written.
Santiago de Compostela: The spiritual quest as pilgrimage
The idea for this volume was sparked at a venue at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia,
Spain. In 1996 the Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS) held its 9th Conference there,
arranged and hosted by Maria Rodríguez del Alisal and the Instituto de Japonología in
Madrid. The location, very close to Santiago Cathedral and the Obradoiro Square, as well
as the international atmosphere of the city and the warm welcome of both the authorities
and the people of Santiago, left a deep impression and are very fondly recalled by those
who attended the conference.
In Santiago de Compostela, which has certainly been one of the most important
destinations for pilgrimage in Christian Europe, it was only natural that the topic of quest
would be strongly linked to that of pilgrimage. Accordingly, the ideas presented started
out by considering pilgrimages in a narrow sense, and were then expanded to cover topics
where the use of the concept of pilgrimage was either drawn into question or became
more and more a metaphor for a quest that might—or might not—have its roots in a
specifically organized search for a transcendental dimension. The present volume reflects
this path of investigation from the concrete to a more abstract level.
Santiago de Compostela, which has historically attracted people from all over Europe,
is a place where we may hear innumerable different languages and encounter a maze of
local cultures and historical traditions. It was thus befitting that a workshop held in this
city came to reflect the diversity of quests for understanding Japan by the way it has
grown and the way it presents itself today. In particular, Santiago de Compostela gave the
Spanish approaches to Japan the possibility of becoming more widely heard. In many
ways, the Spanish interests show us a unique, specific perspective: as this volume proves,
it appears only natural that a country which has seen great architects, sculptors or painters
pursue the most astounding quests for personal forms of expression should closely
associate the idea of quest with that of art.
Beyond reflecting Spanish ideas and approaches, this volume underlines the fact that
in modern Europe quite different kinds of discourse are pursued, academic traditions
followed, and fields of interest expanded, that should be encouraged to develop along
their own characteristic lines. In spite of the use of English, the papers in this book reflect
a variety of approaches which are linked to discourses carried on in many different
languages that do not, and cannot, necessarily orientate themselves in any mainstream
way, but which portray often very personal efforts at grasping the Japanese world.
This ‘spirit of Santiago’ also holds for the contributions by Japanese authors, who not
only represent different generations and perceptions about quests in Japan, but whose
ideas also bear witness to a most stimulating variety of interpretations of what constitutes
spiritual quests, and how these might be associated with concepts of the sacred and the
transcendental.
As befits a historical site like Santiago, the historical dimensions also have been
explored with regard to Japan’s understanding of the transcendental and its view of what
is beyond the ordinary. The reason for a certain emphasis on the historical dimensions
can be spelt out as follows. Since the Meiji Restoration (1868) a considerable amount of
energy has been invested in (re)defining the sphere of the transcendental with the
intention of presenting Japan to the world as a nation-state with direct links to the realm
of transcendence provided by both local gods (kami) and a divine emperor. In this
process we must assume that both Japanese as well as foreign scholars might easily lose
sight of the historical roots of the traditions and customs they describe; in the process,
they may come to view Japan as having an archaic identity which draws its notions and
values from a supposedly pristine, animistic past. However, Japanese quests for physical
and psychic well-being in fact strongly echo ideas and assumptions related to the waves
of beliefs that arrived in the islands over many centuries; arguably, they are thus based far
more on continental East-Asian conceptualizations of the order and laws of the universe
than on any archaic, pure, culturally specific ties with local kami.
Having outlined the important stimuli that the venue at Santiago de Compostela
presented, both as a city and as a frame for the gathering of scholars from very diverse
backgrounds, some further aspects of this unique geographical spot should be described.
Santiago de Compostela is located in the remote region of Galicia at the very north-
westerly tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It certainly did not go unnoticed that there were
similarities between Galicia and Japan, both with regard to the closeness of the sea and to
the green landscape, and to certain elements of a religious nature. After all, seen from the
East-Asian continent, Japan is also a remote geographical region.
Even now Galicians possess a strong belief in the forces of Nature, not unlike that
found in Japanese Shintō. In Galicia, as well as in Japan, people are still very much
attracted to the magic, power and sanctity of special locations such as waterfalls, trees or
mountains. At the same time, both in Galicia and Japan there is a shared common fear of
negative forces that cause misfortune.
Santiago de Compostela is one of medieval Christian Europe’s three main destinations
for pilgrims besides Rome and Jerusalem. All three places have a cosmopolitan character,
and both visitors and pilgrims to these pilgrimage centres belong to different races,
cultures, countries and religions. Besides that, every country in Europe had—and often
still has—its own pilgrimages, both local and national. Pilgrimages in Europe, and among
them quite especially the one to Santiago de Compostela, we may say, belong to a linear
type that involve travelling to one main place of worship. Certainly, pilgrims also visit
other sites along the way, but they are not obliged to, and there is no fixed order for them
to do so.
In contrast, in the case of Japan, although there are some linear pilgrimages
(chokusenkei) like the one to Ise, the general pattern is that of a circuit (kyokusenkei). A
circuit pilgrimage can be oriented to a single figure, for instance the bodhisattva Kannon,
as in the pilgrimage to the 33 Holy Sites of Western Japan (Saikoku). However even in
the case of a linear pilgrimage, pilgrims quite systematically also visit other sites,
especially the main temple or shrine of the school to which they are affiliated (honzan
mōde).
The circuit pilgrimage is very common in Buddhism, and, as mentioned, it is the most
popular form in Japan as well as East and South-East Asia. Incidentally, we may note that
these circular pilgrimages are in fact often of a ‘lollipop’ shape: straight there and back,
with the circuit occurring as part of the journey; thus we might say that they incorporate
circular as well as linear characteristics. As for the circular part of the journey, to go to
different sites in the direction of the clock has a special meaning in Buddhist thought
because it is a way to show respect. The same thing can be seen, by the way, in
Hinduism, where circuits are performed not only for pilgrimages, but also to visit graves,
and they may have their origin in emulation of the daily solar circuit as a symbol of light
and purity. If done in reverse, a circuit would thus be associated with darkness, impurity
and misfortune.
In the Christian world, pilgrimages can be said to have two different origins: the
journey to worship in the Holy Land (Jerusalem), and visits to sites where the relics of
saints can be worshiped. From the fifth century onwards, pilgrimages to Jerusalem gained
popularity, especially after the remains of the Holy Cross and the Holy Nails were said to
have been found. In the eleventh century, however, pilgrimages to the Holy Land
decreased in number, while at the same time the Crusaders went on their missions to
defend the Holy Places. As pilgrimages to Jerusalem became increasingly dangerous,
they were re-oriented to worship the relics and tombs of the martyrs and the saints. In
particular, Rome and the sepulcher of Saint Peter, and, later, Santiago de Compostela
became important centres for pilgrimage.
Travel and pilgrimage meant effort and hardship, but also enjoyment and satisfaction,
especially after completion of the pilgrimage. In Europe, the English term travel is said to
originate from the Latin trepalium (later becoming French travail and Spanish trabajo),
meaning pain and hardship. Thus, a pilgrimage, as travel to worship, was taken to involve
a great amount of hardship; this was certainly true for the pilgrimage to Santiago de
Compostela—and still is so if done on foot all the way!
Nowadays, though, pilgrimages in any society may be somewhat more enjoyable.
Better roads and good transport systems have relieved the pilgrims of former hardships
and inconveniences. Besides, a pilgrim is today more than half a tourist, having plenty of
opportunities to buy all sorts of attractive objects. And yet, we should not overlook the
fact that, at least in Japan, trips to temples may have for a long time already resembled
something like tourism. In this context we may think particularly of the practice of kaichō
(the opening of the curtain of the sanctuary), i.e. the exhibition of a Buddhist image or
treasure usually hidden from sight. Kaichō, which still today are extremely popular, were
means for the temples to raise funds and attract visitors from all over the country.
Whether as hardship or more as an enjoyable trip, the participants who gathered at the
JAWS meeting at Santiago de Compostela resembled pilgrims who start a long journey to
a common place; they all had very different departing points and brought with them
different sets of experiences. However, precisely at Santiago de Compostela it was
painfully felt how small the number of Spanish participants seriously working on Japan
was in comparison to other countries. It is to be hoped that if ever a meeting about Japan
is held again at this stimulating location, many more Spanish scholars will by then be
ready to present their research.
The structure of this book
Following the ideas put forth at Santiago de Compostela, this book sets out in Part I
(Pilgrimages, paths and places) to present aspects of spiritual quests as they take on—or
have taken on—shape in the form of pilgrimages.
First, Peter Ackermann (Travel as spiritual quest in Japan) gives a brief introduction
to establish a historical perspective on the traditional link between travel and spiritual
quest in Japan.
Jesus Gonzáles Valles (Pilgrimage roads in Spain and Japan) then draws a
comparison between the road to Santiago de Compostela and Japanese pilgrimage roads,
outlining a large number of facts that point to the similarities as well as fundamental
differences between the two. For readers who wish to pursue their own quest for a deeper
understanding of Japanese pilgrimage the details and perspectives presented form an
invaluable point of departure.
Sylvie Guichard-Anguis (Pilgrimage, space and identity: Ise (Japan) and Santiago de
Compostela (Spain)) picks up the topic of comparison of pilgrimages and focuses in
particular on Santiago de Compostela in Europe and the Ise Shrines in Japan. By marking
the differences not only in the structure, but also of the general atmosphere between these
two pilgrimages, Guichard-Anguis enables us to note some fundamental characteristics of
Christian pilgrimage and its reflection of universalistic principles on the one hand, and of
the local deity-oriented Japanese context with its emphasis on gense riyaku, on the other.
Sachiko Usui (The concept of pilgrimage in Japan) then takes us on to discover the
essential connections between pilgrimage as a concept in Japan and the flow and travel of
ideas throughout the whole of East Asia. Usui makes it abundantly clear that in Japan,
travel in general and pilgrimage in particular are marked by a pattern of movement
through space and along a chain of encounters that is not just attributable to some local
custom, but also firmly rooted in concrete models described in the fundamental scriptures
of Buddhism translated first into Chinese around the middle of the first millennium CE.
Nathalie Kouamé (The daily life of the henro on the island of Shikoku during the Edo
period: A mirror of Tokugawa society) presents us with a picture of the actual experience
of being a pilgrim in Japan in early modern history (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries).
An analysis of travel diaries of henro (pilgrims on the circuit covering the so-called 88
Holy Places on the Island of Shikoku) shows how the spiritual and worldly concerns of
the pilgrims went hand in hand. At the same time the dimension of the sacred comes into
play in two very distinct ways: on the one hand, the sacred, in the form of specific
locations and experiences, is sought by the pilgrims during their journey. On the other
hand, the pilgrims themselves are interpreted by the villagers along the way as being
sacred and representing a transcendental realm. This dual perspective is an important
aspect of quest in Japan, which not only consists of a traveller going out to seek the
transcendental, but also of the traveller representing the transcendental when coming to
visit those who cannot travel themselves.
Teigo Yoshida (Strangers and pilgrimage in village Japan) pursues the topic of sacred
visits by travellers to those who are not travelling themselves. In Yoshida’s descriptions
too the pilgrim is at the same time one who goes out on a quest of another dimension, and
one who comes and is interpreted as representing this other dimension. Yoshida’s
ethnographic accounts give us a vivid picture especially of the status of the pilgrim and
other persons dedicated to a quest as reflected in the eyes of those whom they visited.
Part II (Reconstructing the quest) expands on the presentation of basic facts and
accounts about pilgrimage in Japan (including comparisons with the pilgrimage to
Santiago de Compostela) and focuses more narrowly on the present. What do people
nowadays make of the concept of quest they have inherited? How far are elements of the
sacred retained in present-day quests in Japan? How should we nowadays assess the
delineation between sacred and profane? Does such delineation altogether make sense?
Eiki Hoshino (Current increase in walking pilgrims) traces the motivation and
experiences of modern pilgrims and gives us insights through interviews into what is
subjectively interpreted to be religious by those who undertake the still considerable
hardships of walking to all or some of the holy sites on the Island of Shikoku.
Maria Rodríguez del Alisal (New forms of pilgrimage in Japanese society) leads us to
ask whether the spiritual quest lying at the root of the concept of pilgrimage has in many
instances not been completely transformed into a quest for a joyful day out, i.e. into an
activity that should be categorized as tourism. While older references to pilgrimage
certainly prove that enjoyment of the landscape and the chance to visit all kinds of
interesting and entertaining spots along the way have always constituted at least one
aspect of pilgrimage in Japan, today the transport facilities available, and formerly
unknown concepts of leisure or weekend outings, have indeed changed the character of
many, if not most, trips to temples or shrines. At the same time del Alisal shows us how
in Japan new places for ‘enjoying a happy day out’ are created precisely by setting up
statues of religious figures, thus apparently merging the sacred with the fun aspect in a
very pronounced way. In this context, del Alisal also traces the transformation of one of
the most famous old pilgrimages in Japan—that of Kumano—into a modern-style
cultural tourist event.
Joy Hendry (Old gods, new pilgrimages? A whistle stop tour of Japanese international
theme parks) looks at the relationship between tourism and pilgrimage and asks the
critical question of whether visits to theme parks, which are commercial ventures offering
experiences of the non-ordinary, should still be associated with the notion of a spiritual
quest and thus considered a type of pilgrimage. This question imposes itself quite
particularly where ‘religious’ elements have been consciously integrated into the park.
Hendry concedes that there may be parallels between a pilgrim and a tourist in present-
day Japan, but at the same time warns that there are also critical differences.
Part III (The quest for the magic, liminal or non-ordinary) takes us one step further
away from the topic of pilgrimage and presents wider aspects of the quest for some kind
of transcendental realm in Japan.
Peter Ackermann (Pilgrimages in Japan: How far are they determined by deep-lying
assumptions?) looks for dimensions that might underlie what we today know as concrete
pilgrimages. By drawing on examples of classical Japanese song texts and poetry
Ackermann shows that leaving the everyday, this-worldly life behind and moving into a
realm where the magic of nature enables mystical experience, has been one deep-lying
impulse for moving through space and time, which we can probably take to be of Taoist
origin. However, this movement does not appear as an escape into another world, but
carries a person along to a point where this-worldly physical health and vital energy are
recaptured and regenerated.
Patrick Beillevaire (Agari-umāi, or the Eastern Tour: A Ryūkyūan royal ritual and its
transformations) takes us to Okinawa Island and describes the decline and rebirth of a
ceremony in which the king and the chief priestess sought the assistance of the
transcendental, not in the first place to secure their own physical health and vital energy,
but for the periodic renewal of fecundity and prosperity of the whole Ryūkyū Kingdom.
Pilar Cabañas (Takiguchi Shūzō and Joan Miró) highlights the notion of spiritual
quest—and at the same time a quest pursued by covering great geographical and cultural
distances—of a Japanese and a Catalan (Spanish) artist. The paper describes the
attraction felt by each side for the artistic potential of the other, and the processes by
which each side undertook the utmost effort to step outside its own traditions and
approach the other. The esteem of each side for the other, and the mechanisms through
which this esteem helped each side rediscover and reinterpret itself, are among the most
remarkable examples for a spiritual quest that has taken shape through the medium of art.
Antonio Santos (Hiroshima, mon amour: An inner pilgrimage to catharsis) discusses
what he calls an inner pilgrimage by focusing on Hiroshima and what this city stands for.
In the case of the film Hiroshima, mon amour the inner pilgrimage is undertaken by a
French woman, but is unconsciously guided and structured by a Japanese man, who
symbolizes release from the past and acknowledgement of the present. Release from the
past and acknowledgement of the present, we should note, is not unconnected to Buddhist
concepts and the power they have exerted on the formation of the Japanese understanding
of life.
The last part of the book, Part IV (The quest for vocational fulfilment), traces quests
aimed at acquiring understanding, knowledge and skills. We are given insight into
Japanese worlds—the worlds of local civil servants, of travelling ethnographers, and of
the artist—and led to reflect upon the question of how far the spiritual quests pursued in
them are, in the end, religious, i.e. shaped by deep-lying assumptions about the path to
spiritual fulfilment.
Hirochika Nakamaki (The ‘initiation rites’ and ‘pilgrimages’ of local civil servants in
the age of internationalization) interprets the training of local administrative officials at
the Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities to acquire a more cosmopolitan
outlook as a secularized form of initiation and pilgrimage. Nakamaki’s contribution is a
very vivid illustration for the degree to which learning processes in Japan can be
understood to belong to the spiritual sphere and take place, as it were, in a sacred context
and as a kind of religious activity. The important question is thus again thrown up of how
far the dichotomy sacred (or religious) versus secular is meaningful for dealing with
Japan.
Jan van Bremen (Travel ethnography in Japan) gives us an elaborate insight into the
lives of, and methods used by, Japanese anthropologists devoted to travelling to spend
repeated but relatively brief periods of time in the field. In contrast to Europe and
America, travel ethnography in Japan has always stood in high regard and thus been able
to develop in many directions as an ethnographic method. In an historical perspective, the
degree to which Japanese travelling ethnographers were driven by a pioneering spirit and
forward-looking visions in their quest for understanding quite particularly the lives of
ordinary people in the villages and towns they visited, has laid the groundwork for us to
be able to tap into enormous quantities of information on distinct individuals leading their
ordinary lives.
In the last chapter of the book, Rosalia Medina Bermejo (A Japanese painter’s quest:
Suda Kunitarō's journey to Spain) takes us back to the Iberian Peninsula and observes
from there the Japanese painter Suda Kunitaro, the stimuli he was given by the Spanish
artistic traditions, life and culture, and his quest for discovering and developing a way of
joining the worlds of Japanese- and Western-style painting.
Notes
1 The struggle to define religion has a long history in anthropology itself (cf. Reader 1991). This
difficulty is compounded in the case of Japan where the term religion (shūkyō) is actually a
term coined specifically to translate a Western concept. The most important terms that
existed in Japan previously to denote something approximating religion were hō (Buddhist
truth, Buddhist law, usually including reference to the institutions propagating it and the
objects used in the associated practices) and dō (the path a practitioner should pursue). In the
earliest days of the Meiji period, around 1870, the Western concept of religion found various
translations, among others shūshi (the essence of a basic truth), shūmon (the gate/the place
that gives access to a basic truth), kyōhō (the teaching of the law), or kyōmon (the gate/the
place that gives access to persons teaching). Shūkyō (shū—a basic truth, a teaching+kyō—
instructing someone, i.e. instructing someone in a basic truth) in the sense of religion was a
word used especially by the administration around 1870 to denote spiritual teachings in a
very general sense and to argue what would lead people onto a good way and prevent them
from being disruptive. A strong impulse to use a general term specifically for religion (at
first often, but not exclusively shūkyō) came in the early 1870s and was supported by two
strands of argument. One strand saw religion as a support for bunmei (enlightened
civilization, Western civilization) and therefore deemed it to be necessary for the
development of the new nation-state. For some influential thinkers at the time Christianity
was the epitome of religion as it appeared to go hand in hand with all the basic requirements
for establishing a civilized nation. The other strand of argument took up the idea of mankind
having universal characteristics, the most important of which was that man stood at the
zenith of evolution. It was a distinction of man, therefore, to have a religion, i.e. an inner
principle that would guide him in his efforts to construct a civilized nation-state. It should be
noted here that the term bukkyō (Buddhism, Buddhist religion) could only be coined after the
general concept of religion (shūkyō) had become established (Susumu and Yoshio 2004).
2 9/11 for many Japanese, just confirmed this notion of the problems with religion.
References
Nishiyama Akira (2000) Shōnen sabaibaru nōto, kazoku no naka de ‘ikinuku’ tame ni [Survival
notes of juveniles; how to ‘survive’ inside the family]. Tokyo: Shūeisha.
Reader, Ian (1991) Religion in Contemporary Japan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
MacMillan Press.
Shimazono Susumu and Tsuruoka Yoshio (2004) ‘Shūkyō' saikō [Rethinking the term ‘religion’],
Tokyo: Pelikan-sha.
Recommended further reading on the Santiago Pilgrimage
Coffrey, Thomas (ed.) (1996) The Miracles of St. James: Translations from the Liber Sancti
Jacobi. Trans. by Linda K.Davidson and Maryjane Dunn. New York: Italica Press.
Frey, Nancy Louise (1998) Pilgrim Stories: On and Off the Road to Santiago, Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press.
Herbers, Klaus (2006) Jakobsweg. Geschichte und Kultur einer Pilgerfahrt. München: Beck.
Melczer, William (1993) The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago De Compostela, New York: Italica
Press.
Van Herwaarden, Jan (2003) Between Saint James and Erasmus: Studies in Late-Medieval
Religious Life: Devotions and Pilgrimages in the Netherlands (Studies in Medieval and
Reformation Traditions), Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Villanueva, Francisco Márquez (2004) Santiago, Trayectoria de un mito, Barcelona: Serie General
Universitaria 33.
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