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1st Edition
Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
Edited By Peter Ackermann, D.P. Martinez, Maria Rodriguez del Alisal
206 Pages
Published 2008 by Routledge
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Description
This exciting new book is a detailed examination of pilgrimages in Japan, including the meanings of travel, transformation, and the discovery of identity through encounters with the sacred, in a variety of interesting dimensions in both historical and contemporary Japanese culture, linked by the unifying theme of a spiritual quest.
Several fascinating new approaches to traditional forms of pilgrimage are put forward by a wide range of specialists in anthropology, religion and cultural studies, who set Japanese pilgrimage in a wider comparative perspective. They apply models of pilgrimage to quests for vocational fulfilment, examining cases as diverse as the civil service, painting and poetry, and present ethnographies of contemporary reconstructions of old spiritual quests, as conflicting (and sometimes global) demands impinge on the time and space of would-be pilgrims.
Table of Contents
Introduction Maria Rodriguez Del Alisal and Peter Ackermann
===
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====
Description
This exciting new book is a detailed examination of pilgrimages in Japan, including the meanings of travel, transformation, and the discovery of identity through encounters with the sacred, in a variety of interesting dimensions in both historical and contemporary Japanese culture, linked by the unifying theme of a spiritual quest.
Several fascinating new approaches to traditional forms of pilgrimage are put forward by a wide range of specialists in anthropology, religion and cultural studies, who set Japanese pilgrimage in a wider comparative perspective. They apply models of pilgrimage to quests for vocational fulfilment, examining cases as diverse as the civil service, painting and poetry, and present ethnographies of contemporary reconstructions of old spiritual quests, as conflicting (and sometimes global) demands impinge on the time and space of would-be pilgrims.
Table of Contents
Introduction Maria Rodriguez Del Alisal and Peter Ackermann
Travel as Spiritual Quest in Japan Peter Ackermann
Part 1: Pilgrimages, Paths and Places
1. Pilgrimage Roads in Spain and Japan Jesus Gonzalez Valles
2. Pilgrimage, Space and Identity: Ise (Japan) and Santiago de Compostela (Spain) Sylvie Guichard-Angus
3. The Concept of Pilgrimage in Japan Sachiko Usui
4. The Daily Life of the Henro on the Island of Shikoku during the Edo Priod as Mirror of Tokugawa Society Nathalie Kouame 5. Stranger and Pilgrimage in Village Japan Teigo Yoshida
Part 2: Reconstructing the Quest
6. Current Increase in Walking Pilgrims Eiki Hoshino
7. New Forms of Pilgrimage in Japanese Society Maria Rodriguez Del Alisal
8. Old Gods, New Pilgrimages? A Whistle Stop Tour of Japanese International Theme Parks Joy Hendry
Part 3: The Quest for the Magic, Liminal, or Non-Ordinary
9. Pilgrimages in Japan. How Far Are They Determined by Unconsciously Held Assumptions? Peter Ackermann
10. Agari-Umai, or the Eastern Tour: A Ryukyuan Royal Ritual and Its Transformations Patrick Beillevaire
11. Takiguchi Shuzo and Joan Miro Pilar Cabanas
12. 'Hiroshima, mon Amour': An Inner Pilgrimage to Catharsis Antonio Santos
Part 4: The Quest for Vocational Fullfillment
13. 'Initiation Rites' and 'Pilgrimage' of Local Civil Servants in the Age of Internalization Hirochika Nakamaki
14. Travel Ethnography in Japan Jan Van Bremen
15. A Japanese Painter's Quest: Suda Kunitaro's Journey to Spain Rosalia Medina Bermejo
Pilgrimage and Experience: An Afterword Dolores Martinez
Editor(s)
Biography
Maria Rodriguez del Alisal is President of the Fundacion Instituto de Japonologia 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 Martinez is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology with reference to Japan at 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.
Editor(s)
Biography
Maria Rodriguez del Alisal is President of the Fundacion Instituto de Japonologia 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 Martinez is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology with reference to Japan at 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.
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===
Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan, edited by Maria Rodríguez del Alisal, Peter Ackermann and Dolores P. Martinez. London and New York: Routledge, 2007, xxii + 186 pp., $120.00 (hardcover ISBN 0-415-32318-5)
Naoko KOBAYASHI
Social Science Japan Journal, Volume 11, Issue 1, Summer 2008, Pages 149–152, https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyn002
Published: 18 March 2008
Extract
The special exhibition entitled ‘Sanctuary and Pilgrimage’ (Seichi Junrei) was held at the National Museum of Ethnology (Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan) in Osaka from 15 March to 5 June 2007. Rare documentary and ethnological films and numerous images and items related to pilgrimages and sacred places, such as Santiago de Compostela and the Shikoku pilgrimage, were on exhibit. The subtitle of the exhibition was ‘A Voyage of Self Discovery’ (jibun sagashi no tabi e). Like the exhibition, the book under review, according to its front page, also intends to examine journeys of self-discovery in Japan and what they provide for those who engage in them.
For some years, the expression ‘self discovery’ (jibun sagashi) has been used often in various fields, such as psychology, religion, philosophy and education in Japan.
Numerous books on the theme of self discovery have been published in recent years, and most of them contain such typical phrases as ‘discovery of your real/new self’, ‘discovery of your own identity’ and ‘finding my place to stay’.
However, the expression self discovery sometimes seems to be used randomly, and the substance and the definition of the word tend to be obscured. Moreover, many books connect self discovery to both a physical and metaphysical journey. The process of self discovery thus is often compared to a ‘journey’.
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Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
Ambros, Barbara. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies;
Nagoya Vol. 34, Iss. 2, (2007): 467-470.
Maria Rodríguez del Alisal, Peter Ackerman, and Dolores P.
Martinez, ed., Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2007. xxi + 184 pp.
£75.00/$150.00 Hardcover. ISBN 0-415-32318-5.
PILGRIMAGES and Spiritual Quests in Japan is a collection of
essays on spiritual journeys that has been eleven years in the
making. The volume traces its origins back to the Ninth Japan
Anthropology Workshop (1996) on the theme "Pilgrimage and
the International Encounter." The workshop was held at
Santiago de Compostela in Spain, one of Europe's most
famous historic pilgrimage destinations. The collection
consists of sixteen essays divided into four parts: 1)
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pilgrimages, paths and places; 2) reconstructing the Quest;
3) the quest for the magic, luminal, and non-ordinary; and 4)
the quest for vocational fulfillment.
In her preface, Joy Hendry alludes to the editorial challenges
the collection faced. She promises that the volume
contributes in-depth studies with innovative anthropological
perspectives on pilgrimage and spiritual quests that
"ultimately open the eyes of our readers to new ways of
thinking" (p. xi). There are several contributions that fulfill
Hendry's promises: the chapters on pilgrims on Shikoku
during the Edo period and the contemporary period by Natalie
Kouamé and Hoshino Eiki respectively, Joy Hendry's chapter
on contemporary Japanese theme parks as pilgrimage that is,
short-term fieldwork such as traveling to sites for single or
multiple short trips. Though disparaged by Western
anthropologists and ethnographers as shallow and
scientifically inadequate, travel ethnography has a long
history in Japan. Van Bremen traces the use of travel
ethnography by Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), the founder of
Japanese folklore studies, and other ethnographers up until
the present. He then singles out two significant travel
ethnographers, Torii Ryuzo (1870-1953) and Miyamoto
Tsune'ichi (1907-1981), to show how travel ethnography
informed their research conducted during World War II. He
concludes that travel ethnography can be particularly useful
during times of war and natural disasters and can serve as a
valuable supplement to more extended fieldwork. Though van
Bremen's essay contains no methodological reflections on
pilgrimage, his analysis of Japanese approaches to
ethnographic and anthropological research represents a
valuable contribution to the field. It makes for especially
interesting reading in the context of other recent
methodological reflections on anthropological research on
Japan such as Doing Fieldwork in Japan (2003) and The
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Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia (2004)
and Asian Anthropology (2006), a volume van Bremen
himself edited with Eyal Ben-Ari and Syed Farid Alatas.
Several other contributions are of note as essays that
established innovative starting points of inquiry with great
potential, but they ultimately fall short of realizing their
potential-perhaps in part because the articles were of such
limited length. Patrick Beillevaire's essay on agari-umai, a
royal tour of sacred places on the Ryukyu Islands, provides a
solid historical summary, but unfortunately the essay ends at
the most salient point: the contemporary appropriation of the
practice. Given that the volume was promised to present
anthropological perspectives on pilgrimage and travel, I was
surprised that Beillevaire did not explore in depth how agariumai serves to create ethnic and regional identities in
contemporary Okinawa.
The essays by Pilar Cabanãs and Rosalia Medina Bermejo
explore the relationships of Japanese artists and poets with
Spain by following Thomas Rimer's approach in his
Pilgrimages: Aspects of Japanese Literature and Culture
(1988). The essays are well researched and contain
interesting biographical data. One could argue that the
expansion of the category of pilgrimage to a personal quest
of self-discovery has innovative potential, but the essays do
not develop the theme with clarity, nor do they examine the
implications of the inclusion. Thus these chapters do not
contribute much to the methodology of pilgrimage or travel.
Nakamaki Hirochika's analysis of internationalization training
for civil servants as rites of initiation and pilgrimage is
suggestive. His topic also has the potential to broaden the
categories of pilgrimage discourse. Yet ultimately the essay
fails to address two fundamental questions: Why do the
Japanese authorities consider it sufficient to train their civil
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servants in English and send them to the United States in
order to internationalize them when the majority of the
foreigners in Japan actually come from other Asian countries?
Why are they not trained in Chinese or Korean instead?
Perhaps it is only in the last five years or so that that the
realities of immigration in Japan has begun to be
acknowledged, and so did not find its way into this chapter,
which is based on a conference paper from the mid 1990s.
This omission is a reflection of a larger shortcoming that runs
through the entire volume: much of the research is dated.
One would have hoped that even though the original essays
were presented at a conference held in 1996, the editors
would have encouraged their contributors to update their
work to reflect more recent development in the field, but
even the editors' introduction shows little awareness of
important recent publications in the field of pilgrimage in
Japan, such as the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
special issue on pilgrimage edited by Paul Swanson and Ian
Reader (1997) or Ian READER's superb study of the
contemporary Shikoku pilgrimage (2005).
Another weakness is that the volume is marred by
methodological problems and factual errors that escaped the
editors. For example, Usui Sachiko claims that "Zenzai [i.e.,
Sudhana]'s journey in the Kegon Sutra [] might have
stimulated Kukai to establish the pilgrimage course
connecting the 88 temples in Shikoku" (p. 32). Her point that
actual Buddhist pilgrimages were influenced by practices
described in Buddhist scriptures is entirely valid. However,
the claim that the Shikoku pilgrimage was actually founded
by Kukai is problematic. This may be a notion that is
commonly held by pilgrims or claimed by pilgrimage
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promoters, but it belongs to the realm of hagiography rather
than historical reality accepted by contemporary scholars of
the Shikoku pilgrimage.
Conference proceedings tend present their editors with
challenging decisions about the selection of contributions and
the transformation of conference papers into articles. Despite
these obstacles, their attraction lies in the presentation of
new research and in the collection of articles on a unified
theme in a single volume. Perhaps Pilgrimages and Spiritual
Quests in Japan would have had greater appeal had the
volume been published soon after the conference, before the
material became dated. Unfortunately, the collection is of
uneven quality and displays a typical shortcoming of
conference volumes: the contributions remain superficial due
to their brevity-the average length is ten to eleven pages.
The editors would have been better served by being more
selective based on the quality of the contributions and giving
the authors more space to develop their presentations into
full articles.
References
REFERENCES
BESTOR, Theodore C., Patricia G. Steinhoff, and Victoria Lyon
Bestor, eds.
2003 Doing Fieldwork in Japan. Honolulu: University of
Hawai'i Press.
CARON, Bruce
1995 Magic Kingdom: Towards a post-modern ethnography of
sacred places. The Sacred Mountains of Asia, ed. John
Einarsen. 125-30. Boston: Shambala.
HENDRY, Joy.
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media features. Learn more
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2000 Foreign country theme parks: A new theme or an old
Japanese pattern? Social Science Japan Journal 3/2: 207-20.
HOSHINO Eiki ...
1999 Shikoku henro ni nyu eiji? Gendai aruki henro no taiken
bunseki .... Shakaigaku nenshi 40: 47-64.
KOUAMÉ, Nathalie.
1997 Shikoku's local authorities and henro during the golden
age of the pilgrimage. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies.
24: 413-25.
2001 Pèlerinage et société dans le Japon des Tokugawa: Le
pèlerinage de Shikoku entre 1598 et 1868. Paris: École
française d'Extrême Orient.
READER, Ian
2005 Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku.
Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
READER, Ian, and Paul L. Swanson, eds.
1997 "Pilgrimage in Japan." Special issue of Japanese Journal
of Religious Studies 24/3-4.
RIMER, Thomas J.
1988 Pilgrimages: Aspects of Japanese Literature and
Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
VAN BREMEN, Ian, Eyal BEN-ARI and Syed Farid Alatas, eds.
2006 Asian Anthropology. London and New York: Routledge.
YAMASHITA Shinji, Joseph Bosco and J. S. Eades, eds.
2004 The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia.
Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.
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Details
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Pages
Section
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AuthorAffiliation
Barbara AMBROS
University North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Copyright Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture 2007
Abstract
TranslateM
Ambros reviews Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
edited by Maria Rodriguez del Alisal, Peter Ackerman, and
Dolores P. Martinez
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Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan. Edited by Maria Rodríguez del Alisal, Peter Ackermann, and Dolores P. Martinez. Routledge, London, 2007. xxi, 184 pages. $150.00.
While the title of this volume is accurate, it cannot suggest the wealth of material and breadth of scope represented in its 16 essays. Books on pilgrimage typically provide readers with theories about pilgrimage; historical, social, and cultural dimensions of this phenomenon; and often personal accounts of different sorts of pilgrims or seekers. Materials of that kind are important features of some chapters in this collection, such as Nathalie Kouamé's essay on the daily life of the Shikoku henro (or pilgrim) in Edo Japan, Sachiko Usui's informative piece on the possible role of the Kegon sutra in "establishing and popularizing the concept of pilgrimage in Japan" (p. 32), Sylvie Guichard-Anguis's differentiated sketch of pilgrimages over the centuries to Ise and Santiago de Compostela, and Teigo Yoshida's depiction of the pilgrim as "stranger" in village Japan. Each of these provides a brief but fresh perspective on topics seldom discussed.
Even more interesting, at least to this reviewer, are a number of essays that stretch the concept of pilgrimage in remarkable ways, relating the sense of spiritual quest to song texts and poetry, surrealist painting, a well-known film, travel ethnography, and comparative history of art. Some of these are briefly depicted in the second half of this review. In appropriate ways, all of them explore the implications of pilgrimage beyond its customary confines as a trip to a sacred place or as part of a religious discipline. Given the root meaning of "pilgrim," however, as one who travels to foreign lands or unexplored territories, these essays are not only pertinent; they are also of comparable significance.
Having been a walking, questing, fatigued, and rejuvenated pilgrim myself on the Shikoku pilgrimage (henro michi) for several weeks at a time on seven occasions from 1983 to 2002, I can readily identify with the accounts [End Page 151] provided in this book. Even as a bus pilgrim with a group of Anglicans moving slowly over a ten-day period from Bilboa to Santiago during the 1999 Holy Year, I became initiated to that route, to its wealth of tradition and culture, and especially to the drama of pilgrims packed fervently together for High Mass in the Cathedral of Santiago.
Nothing in this volume reduces pilgrimage experiences to one sort of motivation or value or series of criteria. This is part of its virtue. Instead, it acknowledges that questions about the meaning of pilgrimage arise naturally within each person as he or she travels such a path. How can travel be a form of pilgrimage? What does it mean to be on a "quest"? Need pilgrimage be religious or even "spiritual"? What are the social as well as personal dimensions of pilgrimage? Are "tourists" and "pilgrims" on a "different path"? As a response to internal questioning of this sort, the book's introduction begins by stating that "travel and pilgrimage [mean] effort and hardship, but also enjoyment and satisfaction, especially after completion of the pilgrimage" (p. xvi). One of the book's early essays asks why the number of walking pilgrims in Japan appears to be increasing these days, especially when so many of those surveyed by Eiki Hoshino seemed uncertain about what made them choose to participate in this more rugged manner. Later testimonies from these same pilgrims reveal, nevertheless, how their original motivations were "subverted" and then transformed by the experience itself. What is it that brings about a change so significant?1
Specifically, by walking such a lengthy route with its centuries of tradition, in close association with other pilgrims, and through a direct, more intimate connection with the natural world, they discovered their own larger identity in ways they had never anticipated. A surprising by-product of pilgrimage may come by discovering newfound capacities for joy, gratitude, and generosity. This does not mean, of course, that pilgrims have no interest in the potential "benefits" of this experience. This-worldly benefits (gense riyaku), such as concern for one's...
