Thinking about Pilgrimage, Particularly in Modern Japan

Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage By Michael Pye Sheffield: Equinox, 2015. Pp. xvi + 315. Hardcover, $95.00; Paper, $29.95. Pilgrimage in the Marketplace By Ian Reader Routledge Series in Religion, Travel, and Tourism New York: Routledge, 2014. Pp. xiv + 228. Hardcover, $145.00; Paper, $44.95. Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction By Ian Reader Oxford Very Short Introductions 427 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xiv + 130. $11.95. Michael Pye's Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage is one of the latest books to focus on pilgrimage in modern Japan. It follows several recent works on the subject by Ian Reader including his Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku (2005), as well as his two books reviewed in this essay, Pilgrimage in the Marketplace and Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction. Reader's comparative approach is useful analytically for looking at Pye's more narrowly focused study of Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage. Reader's key points—that modern pilgrimage has become increasingly widespread, internationalized, commercialized, and secularized—provides a convenient framework for understanding what is happening in Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage as discussed in detail by Michael Pye. In Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage, Pye continues a scheme he has employed previously of analyzing pilgrimage based on route, transaction, and meaning (see Pye 1987; Pye 2005). The first five chapters provide a detailed compendium of modern pilgrimage routes in Japan. These include the well-known Saikoku route, which is the model for several other 33-temple routes with icons of Kannon (the bodhisattva of mercy); the famous Shikoku route of 88 temples associated with Kōbō Daishi (the ninth-century Buddhist monk who founded Japan's Shingon sect of Buddhism), which is the model for several other 88-temple routes; routes organized around other Buddhist deities like Yakushi (the Buddha of healing), Fudō Myōō, or Jizō; routes based on historical Buddhist figures like Hōnen or Dōgen; and routes based on multiple deities like the thirteen Buddhas or the seven gods of good fortune as well as other Shugendō and Shinto routes. The first half of Pye's book, with its multiple lists, tables, maps, and pictures of Buddhist icons, provides the reader with an introduction to the great number and diversity of Japan's pilgrimage routes, which up to now has only been available in Japanese guidebooks (see, e.g., Yagi 2013). Although the lists do give a good depiction of the most popular and common pilgrimage routes in modern Japan, it is surprising that Pye includes several non-Buddhist pilgrimages, given that his book's title and his subsequent analysis is on the meaning of Buddhist pilgrimages. Pye's description of modern Buddhist pilgrimages is both extensive and practical. He offers detailed information about the most basic features of Buddhist pilgrimage that is extremely helpful for nonspecialists unfamiliar with the subject matter. Such interesting details as the similarities of the Chinese characters used to write Saikoku and Shikoku, respectively, might be overlooked by experts with decades of fieldwork experience. But Pye proves to be a masterful teacher for neophytes of Japan, Buddhism, and pilgrimage. Pye then analyzes in Chapter 6 what he calls the pilgrim's transaction, by which he means the set of ritual practices that connect the pilgrim to the Buddhist object of devotion at the temple. Transaction is what distinguishes a pilgrimage from other types of temple visits. A pilgrim's transaction has a three-part structure: 1) The pilgrim deposits evidence of the visit, 2) the pilgrim performs a devotional act, and 3) the pilgrim acquires evidence of the visit (185). Again, Pye provides extensive detailed information about votive slips (osame fuda) deposited at pilgrimage temples, sutras and songs commonly chanted in front of worship halls, and the stamps (placed in books or on jackets or scrolls) and icons cards available for purchase at each pilgrimage temple. In his concluding chapters, Pye turns to the task of interpretation, or, more precisely, he explores what these pilgrimages mean in general as well as what specific meanings they hold for individual pilgrims. While he includes some information about the wishes pilgrims inscribe on votive slips as well as the meaning behind pilgrims’ traditional dress and the content of guidebooks, most of the analysis in this chapter concerns the content of sutra recitations done at pilgrimage temples, especially texts like the Kannon Sutra (Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra) and the Heart Sutra. The analysis of these sutras is interesting and yet this choice is surprising given that Pye argues at the onset that his is a phenomenological approach to the study of religion based upon “the creation of reliable characterizations which are consistent with the self-understanding of the believers or participants themselves” (6). Most would assume that meaning would be primarily analyzed from actual testimonies from pilgrim informants, or from readily available memoirs and diaries. But Pye argues that “[o]n balance, it may be confidently stated that the booklets [small books containing recitations] are sufficiently common, and in such practical use, for them to count as evidence for the meanings which pilgrims see in their pilgrimage” (244). However, the influence of group activities and ritual traditions would have to qualify any confidence that recitations are positively correlated to a pilgrim's motivations. Reader, for example, makes the point that bus-tour pilgrims, who travel in groups, are much more likely to spend more time at temples and participate in recitations than solitary walking pilgrims (Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction, 23). Especially in the context of esoteric Japanese Buddhism, recitations often gain more meaning through ritual performance than through understandings of or contemplations on content (see Yamasaki 1988). Generally, Pye's Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage is a commendable work. The first six chapters alone allow readers to gain basic information about the great diversity of pilgrimage routes in Japan as well as specifics about pilgrimage rituals and etiquette, material culture, and so on. Pye's views about the meaning of Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan are built upon the premise that the motivations for undertaking them are intrinsically religious at their core. While this will not be persuasive to all, it offers an important academic perspective especially in comparison to the work done by Ian Reader. Reader's Pilgrimage in the Marketplace and Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction share much in terms of their content and even their prose. Pilgrimage in the Marketplace is a part of the Routledge Studies on Religion, Travel, and Tourism. Reader includes several examples from pilgrimages around the world but often relies theoretically on Japanese pilgrimage for his key examples. Of course this is because he is a specialist in the religions of Japan, but it is more than that: Reader argues persuasively that if pilgrimage is best understood as a field of competing market relations, which is his major thesis, then Japan offers valuable illustrations for comparison (Pilgrimage in the Marketplace [hereafter Marketplace], 11). Reader argues that, while religious devotion may be an object of contemporary pilgrimage, it does not fully define it as a practice. Modern pilgrimage is deeply embedded in ordinary secular institutions and activities—the travel industry and tourism, the mass media and advertising, the economic production and the mass consumption of pilgrimage-related consumer goods, and so on. The chapters offer an extremely interesting and accessible look at the essential socioeconomic, technological, and promotional strategies behind why some pilgrimages succeed and others fail. Reader does this through a study of marketing campaigns, innovative and entrepreneurial priests, pilgrimage merchants, guidebooks, souvenirs, and the experiences of other actors within the travel and tourism industry. His goal is to qualify, if not reject, Eliade's dichotomy between the sacred and profane and to show that the commercialization of pilgrimage is not new—that the this-worldly and the holy are inextricably interrelated when it comes to the perpetuation of pilgrimage (Marketplace, 16). This picks up on themes from Reader's previous work, such as Making Pilgrimages (2005) and, with George Tanabe, his Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan (1998). Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction is the latest addition to the Oxford University Press “very short introduction” series and designed for classroom use. Given that the premise of the book is that pilgrimage is a universal phenomenon, this book provides an extremely valuable with a of examples from not Japan, but from pilgrimages from around the The is that themes in contemporary pilgrimage example, are as important as for a pilgrimage be in the of pilgrims to the Pilgrimage to as well as the pilgrimage in Japan mass media is as for the of any pilgrimage as as by the pilgrimage in with which has been about in in and even in The (Pilgrimage: A Very Short Introduction [hereafter In the concluding Reader the of or secular pilgrimages. These are and from the and in the to pilgrimages in Japan While Reader, especially in his work on the Shikoku pilgrimage, works from a set as his comparative approach with its and perspective on the basic to and secular activities is His work in a one that that Japanese pilgrimage is not at but Japanese pilgrimages are increasingly a more with of Japanese pilgrimages are increasingly more and look at each of these themes in Japanese pilgrimage has become more as it has more and participants from around the by media as well by the time and available to a number in more both and are of and Japan's pilgrimage routes. Pye and Reader on study on the of pilgrimage in modern Japan. However, Pye is much more about pilgrimage has become in recent He that are of pilgrimages in Japan Buddhist Pilgrimage, This well and is based on a of pilgrimage as “the of a route to a sacred which Buddhist Pilgrimage, 16). Pye's short of pilgrimage as any visit to a temple or Buddhist Pilgrimage, Reader is about in modern Japan. He does to show that some pilgrimages have of especially when by and marketing example, the pilgrimage, of from in to pilgrims in because they their the This is a time which when the Kannon icons become available for (Marketplace, This of to that Japan a pilgrimage However, such to which the Pilgrimage to an in (Marketplace, Reader argues that mass travel and tourism and have the number of pilgrims and of both and any from a of now participate for example, the of Shikoku pilgrims are and of pilgrims are now than (Marketplace, Pilgrimage in Japan has become more through a of and with of pilgrimage routes now available the However, Reader that the market for pilgrimage is the of pilgrimage routes is which has in some temples a in He to work on the of pilgrimage in the of a in a in the number of at He between pilgrimages a have in Japan. to one has at the of other pilgrimage like Saikoku and (Marketplace, see Reader The of has five pilgrimage routes, but as one has the others have This provides that and may have the of pilgrimages but have not in in (Marketplace, have to Japanese pilgrimage more Reader the of pilgrimage guidebooks as important means for the of pilgrimage (Marketplace, about pilgrimage routes has through and the of individual pilgrim's in the Japanese mass of which have the Pye's of pilgrimage and his of the Reader provides a of and why Japanese pilgrimages are more modern in such as mass and the industry have the for However, is not especially for specific pilgrimage routes that have to pilgrims in an increasingly and While to their in pilgrimages are increasingly in are now commonly in academic between Japanese pilgrimage routes and other pilgrimages and sacred around the like and the or the of the in the specific of pilgrimage, and to Japanese pilgrimage is a in their The books by Pye and Reader, as well as any other books from the popular on Japanese pilgrimage, offer evidence that Japan's pilgrimages have become more and (see 2013). Most on Japanese pilgrimage to define pilgrimage and then its practices through at Shikoku and for not only in terms of Japanese and Buddhist to be and analyzed in or in comparison to one but as that offer comparative in the context of pilgrimages the Pye often Japanese pilgrimage to in other He argues that Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage is because of its than in which one is any more important than the others on the But he with other pilgrimages like the of the in and the of in Buddhist Pilgrimage, Pye similarities between Japanese Pilgrimage and pilgrimages his study He have to the Shikoku these include books by Ian Reader, and Buddhist Pilgrimage, (see and and and recent book, The of the 88 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage be to Pye's Reader's two books do not Japanese pilgrimage as and from other pilgrimages he is of the work on pilgrimage, which often relies on examples as its key By Japanese pilgrimage, he is a with extremely useful for pilgrimage as a In the of his Oxford Reader that pilgrimage is The that, even he is a specialist in the Shikoku pilgrimage, he to write on pilgrimage for this series is in the of Japan in pilgrimage In Religion in the Reader argues Japanese pilgrimages are an important comparative to the of modern pilgrimage in Japan has a pilgrimage with routes and to on and for their Japan front and is because pilgrimages are by such which are often by in religions (Marketplace, recent books provide evidence of Japanese increasingly In The of the 88 on the Shikoku This is a of walking pilgrimage of the Shikoku a for the is well for his previous book, The of the on the multiple pilgrimages by pilgrims in the often in the of (see Introduction, now a of pilgrims who travel on multiple routes them the and sacred is one of such a pilgrim for Shikoku a to his pilgrimage in even Shikoku as in a and some The and others pilgrims between Shikoku and the is A key focus of Reader's analysis at the of Pilgrimage in the Marketplace is that are these pilgrims the for example, a in and the pilgrimage its in The Shikoku Pilgrimage has been for the for their pilgrimage and has used the of as a model for its and marketing (Marketplace, such for their on the world tourism and pilgrims. at work media is and Japanese pilgrimages have become more because of and like the New His in on in the features Japan. While series six Shikoku with the and The series one of and in the the Shikoku pilgrimage to a The of pilgrimage is a but key for both pilgrims and In Pilgrimage in the Reader that have often to the in popular pilgrimage. do so by it as or even that pilgrims from the of pilgrimage as a sacred such that in pilgrimage upon religious experiences available to Reader that he this on his first pilgrimage to in He of the merchants, to provide and for a even at on the He that these of pilgrims and from the pilgrimage with the of and He has essential these to the that the even and they as part of his (Marketplace, Reader the behind who to between the holy and the in pilgrimage. He that of academic have the and material of pilgrimage, especially in the modern as to the of pilgrimage” (Marketplace, 11). he to about modern pilgrimage In his book on the Shikoku pilgrimage, to but one of he calls the recent of pilgrims traditional pilgrimage with as and Pye to be one of these who to these about Pye is of to tourism with pilgrimage. He that this is in some it is to why this to be interesting the are interesting it is the which are of Buddhist Pilgrimage, In Shikoku Pye is more with the of Shikoku features than the to it by Buddhist Pilgrimage, He intrinsically important about the associated with pilgrimage does not to including who the temples, that is an even a to the This is only of the is in it is understood that will be is why to it as a Buddhist Pilgrimage, This may be the most part of Pye's work. one he but on the other he is extremely in the pilgrim's of especially with and depiction cards at The of and is a basic economic that the ritual between sacred and the to not these with them some to the pilgrim's from the of religious and to the more meanings in a within which sacred travel as with the pilgrims, who are a of contemporary and are deeply in the transaction, is Pye in this when he of pilgrimage he his a Saikoku pilgrimage in a Buddhist Pilgrimage, such and and from or an part of they not an important that pilgrims in at temples in the first such not a of of the Reader makes a that they but that they not be a to pilgrimage of his pilgrim on pilgrimage because they a with stamps from each temple. that book or their for a pilgrimage (Marketplace, He argues that pilgrims do not even worship or Pye's of transaction by a devotional act, but to the (Marketplace, of pilgrims they their as a (Marketplace, they mean by this and what of meanings are associated with from the pilgrimage are a key for if to why these in the first guidebooks focus on the temple stamps than the routes their consumer by which temples to to based on which include the other or even the of the stamps (see Yagi pilgrimages often do not have a at for example, only offers stamps at of their 88 and is a of pilgrims only the stamps be the other on the pilgrimage (Marketplace, The for with Chinese characters that at a (Marketplace, to who in this of travel and it at that, or does their approach to pilgrimage offer a for understanding what mean by the mean the of religion or a of the of By Pye on the devotional of temple By each is a which means a he the as a of a religious a sutra means in this a in to for a sutra to be at sutras or sutras by is a Buddhist Pilgrimage, it that temple are devotional from the in the pilgrimage, such as at and Pye that while temple stamps provide of temple pilgrims have of their most will their travel with a and, in the through of with a or not the Buddhist Pilgrimage, It that Pye's is that, because for travel the choice to books or is by religious devotion than Reader would with Pye about the of temple However, Pye some devotional from which may not be within Reader's A in Reader's work is that the of the are to be with like in religions Reader to any between and that the for holy when one gain from a holy or is the for market in Japanese (Marketplace, Introduction, But are within Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage temples have a as the stamps are with pilgrimage like votive and often other However, in other temples the is in the of the worship in the temple allow for types of This for two Reader is and is between devotional and or Pye is and temple are from other of pilgrimage like the Shikoku pilgrimage pilgrimage (Marketplace, and the Saikoku pilgrimage temple stamps of from the actual temple (Marketplace, to Reader's more However, for pilgrims primarily by Buddhist Pye's may be Reader's on commercialization more because he that the between pilgrimage and tourism is and not at all, is an of pilgrimage. example, the first in by who travel to (Marketplace, While may be to worship at temples and stamps or votive Reader argues that pilgrimage is the of several market at religious pilgrimage through is an of market Pye that the between pilgrimage and a temple or is the visit through votive slips and stamps Buddhist Pilgrimage, However, Pye distinguishes these temple from the that is to the of the tourism industry associated with pilgrimage routes. The influence of on pilgrimage Reader's and Pye's work in interesting It marketing and are an important in understanding pilgrimage his Pye to the temple at the first temple of and “very that which the the at in and a at an the of Buddhist Pilgrimage, This of routes makes these are not the only routes that are as one of the best is the It would that with the of Shikoku that only these would from the Shikoku Pilgrimage the routes do not like they would that would be with other routes like the 88 the of Japan or the 88 of Reader, in Pilgrimage in the the for these other two pilgrimages. In these routes, and a promotional in the of the a on of the routes, from each of the to a of the of the pilgrimages, and from on with the of the (Marketplace, It that the temple of not based on similarities in or culture, or even a to the Shikoku route, but on a promotional It would that the of pilgrimages are essential to fully understanding the for their he the in are that pilgrimage Reader to that would be some on the of pilgrimage. This on the of He that, point by a pilgrim the of the in when by if it to pilgrimages on and on the in why they the as and as While it would be to at the a for to do so the pilgrimage Shikoku pilgrims not to at if they are temples in the these it that is in the pilgrimage in modern Japan or In modern Japan, pilgrimages are often more for their than as for Buddhist While the of pilgrimage routes and the number of pilgrims Japan, religious devotion does not to be an essential or in to Japanese pilgrimage does not on a in religious devotion but often on the to within the and of modern Japan. The and of the to be with contemporary pilgrimage This is a point that Reader but Pye Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage Pye the religious and Buddhist of pilgrimage. He provides and of of the icons in pilgrimage temples Pye includes a of common pilgrimage recitations including the Kannon Sutra and Heart Sutra However, Pye does that and have devotion by pilgrimages more In the Pye a Shinto and his for his study of the Kannon pilgrimage and he University for their even and does not well of Buddhism, which is the for the He that sacred are by and, several religious and but traditions often to on sacred He is with the content of most guidebooks, to any it may be that the between travel and religious and general are often In the modern of Kōbō Pye Daishi has become a of the religious of Japan. The to Shingon Buddhism, or to any Buddhism, is It that, Pye and yet the in modern pilgrimage. Reader, on the other does not the secular from the sacred and Pilgrimages may be founded on the of and and then through media entrepreneurial priests, and While Pye may be of Reader to be as of or religious He to of about in terms of when in what are activities of to when to the by or who from the Shikoku pilgrimage (Marketplace, He argues that devotion is not a of why one pilgrimage and one by travel while a in the Shikoku pilgrimage in the by on its (Marketplace, Reader would that is not but in the or, “the pilgrim to by for a at the (Marketplace, the most persuasive and interesting of is the of and at Shikoku temple of and previously at the temple as evidence of of pilgrims. temple and this would pilgrims to and the and of the pilgrimage. However, at some point the the they the and of the and not in with the modern of the pilgrimage” (Marketplace, as a or and Shikoku is as a more secular (Marketplace, Reader is increasingly as a for the strategies and of such as and that pilgrimage as a means of and economic (Marketplace, While this may be it may be general of in Japan (see Reader the of Pye's concluding he the the pilgrimages Buddhist Pilgrimage, this like an and Buddhist temples is pilgrimage temple might it is the most Buddhist one But Pye is not a about In he to Reader's that “the Shikoku pilgrimage is in Japan not so much as a Buddhist pilgrimage, but as one associated with Japanese and In Pye that for some Japanese pilgrimages be and even Buddhist Buddhist Pilgrimage, However, Pye that Japanese pilgrimage may be because it to the individual He “the to pilgrimage, this is in a of which religion is in The to the a of what has to the Buddhist Pilgrimage, 23). Reader with Pye's is and is the for to even if from their to look for meanings and of and to to that they them in such Reader and Pye are in their of the universal of pilgrimage, then is a of so to that pilgrimage will or not it is associated with the The works by Michael Pye and Ian Reader are both important of Japanese pilgrimage. are at for to Japanese pilgrimage and to the and secular of modern pilgrimage and what this might mean for the of Japanese pilgrimage, in and modern in

Ancient history · Archaeology · Buddhism · Pilgrimage · History · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Travel Writing and Literature

• Pilgrims and travellers in search of the holy

  Amos S Ron•Journal of Heritage Tourism•2011

  Add to list

• Buddhism in Crisis? Institutional Decline in Modern Japan

  Ian Reader•Buddhist Studies Review•2012

  Add to list

• Shingon

  James H Sanford, Taiko Yamasakoi et al.•Monumenta Nipponica•1989

  Add to list

• Alternative Altars

  Donald Stone, Robert S Ellwood•Sociological Analysis•1979

  Add to list