Table Of ContentPilgrimages 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.
