MOVING THE SOUL THROUGH THE BODY IN JAPANESE PILGRIMAGE
MOVING THE SOUL THROUGH THE BODY IN JAPANESE PILGRIMAGE

Summary/Abstract: Research on pilgrimages in Japan is dominated by approaches from fields such as history, geography and sociology, but there are few studies that squarely address the significance of pilgrimages to the West from a religious studies perspective. Furthermore, there is almost no research on pilgrimage texts specific to the Edo period, such as sacred place records. On the other hand, research in Europe and the US has often focused on the religious significance of pilgrimages, and overwhelmingly, Shikoku pilgrimage with a typical circular structure has been taken up in terms of contrast with linear pilgrimages in Christian and other regions. Recent research in the Christian world has tended to clarify the relationship between travel (pilgrimage) and tourism, but the role of the body in the religious and spiritual tradition of pilgrimage has not been sufficiently examined. Furthermore, in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a growing awareness that visits, pilgrimage journeys and tours were by bus, and the number of people making pilgrimages on foot declined rapidly. Pilgrimage journeys are designed to benefit the present world by visiting Kannon Bosatsu (Boddhisattva) enshrined in various places, but they are also intended as a practice to benefit the afterlife, to move the body and to satisfy the mind. In other words, it may have been thought since ancient times that if one embarked on a pilgrimage journey to express daily gratitude, he or she would finally be saved after death. This paper considers how the role of the body has changed since the days of buses and other forms of transport. In doing so, it will be seen that the role of the body still carries sacred objects and plays an important role in reaching Buddhahood.

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