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. Japan Anthropology Workshop Series 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 LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2007 Editorial selection and matter, Maria Rodríguez del Alisal, Peter Ackermann and Dolores P.Martinez; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pilgrimages and spiritual quests in Japan/edited by Maria Rodríguez del Alisal, Peter Ackermann and Dolores P.Martinez. p. cm.—(Japan anthropology workshop series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-415-32318-5 (hardback: alk. paper) 1. Pilgrims and pilgrimages—Japan. 2. Japan—Religious life and customs. 3. Self-perception. 4. Self-knowledge, Theory of. I. Rodríguez del Alisal, Ma. Dolores (María Dolores). II. Ackermann, Peter, 1947-III. Martinez, D.P. (Dolores P.), 1957– BL2211.P5P55 2007 203′.50952–dc22 2006028070 ISBN 0-203-31850-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-32318-5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-31850-1 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-32318-5 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-31850-8 (ebk) 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 15 (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 37 Period: A mirror of Tokugawa society NATHALIE KOUAMÉ 6 Strangers and pilgrimage in village Japan 47 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.