1st Edition

Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan

    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    206 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    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 

    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.