The following are a few representative projects in various stages on their way towards presentation/publication.
平成時代の四国遍路における不断の巡礼者と宗教的権威
[Perpetual Pilgrims and Religious Authority with the Contemporary Shikoku Henro]
日本の長い歴史を通して、宗教指導者たちは宗教的旅によってその権威と正統性を確立してきた。平成時代において、路上で指導者が形成されるこのプロセスは、日本で最も有名な精神的旅である四国遍路の、「不断の巡礼者」によって説明できるだろう。彼らの実態は様々だが、概して継続的な旅を行う巡礼上級者である。これら放浪の宗教指導者たちの研究は、現代日本における宗教的権威の主要なダイナミクスを照らし出し、また、巡礼研究のグローバルフィールドに例外的な考慮事項を提言する。
Throughout Japanese history, religious travel has been essential to the establishment of religious authority among nearly all of the country’s most prominent spiritual leaders. Seminal figures, ranging from Saichō 最澄and Kūkai空海 in the Heian period to Asahara Shōkō 麻原彰晃of modern times, founded their spiritual credentials on religious journeys to the Asian mainland. Likewise, domestic journeys, including pilgrimage to envisioned spiritual locations of power or in the form of itinerant wondering, were fundamental in the biographies of figures such as Saigyō 西行and Ippen 一編. In short, religious travel is arguably unrivaled as a factor for the establishment of legitimacy among religious leaders in Japan.
In the Heisei Era, the journey to the 88 places on the island of Shikoku, or Shikoku henro, provides some of the most illuminating examples of how exceptional efforts on the road translate into religious authority. This 1200km pilgrimage to 88 temples is traditionally centered on Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師, the posthumous and honorific title given to Kūkai 空海 (774-835 C.E.), the founder of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism (真言密教) in Japan. With the henro, Japan’s definitive spiritual journey, the most influential pilgrims are found performing the pilgrimage nearly non-stop and through numerous circuits; we refer to these individuals as “perpetual pilgrims” (不断の巡礼者). Perpetual pilgrims themselves are a deeply diverse body of religious travelers, which include Buddhist priests (僧侶), professional guides (先達), healing shaman (ヒーリングシャーマン), proxy pilgrims (代理参拝者), homeless mendicants (托鉢ホームレス), and compulsive retirees (強制的な退職者). Furthermore, their respective methods for doing the pilgrimage vary considerably with some traveling by car and others by foot, as well as the possible inclusion or exclusion of other defining activities such as the use of pilgrim stamp-book (納経帳), alms-seeking (托鉢), or sleeping outdoors (野宿). We estimate that there are several hundred prominent perpetual pilgrims with about 30 being especially influential—even high profile—spiritual authorities.
Characters on a Page, Characters on a Pilgrimage:
The Heisei Era Shikoku Henro Literature Boom
過去１５年間で、四国遍路に関する出版ブームがおこっている。四国遍路は、日本で最も有名な精神的な旅であり、ほぼ間違いなく世界で最も文字にされ出版されている巡礼である。この出版ブームの大部分を構成している体験記は、数々の社会的、科学的な課題を追求するのに傑出した主要なソースである。この前例のない研究では、日本の現代的な宗教観、発展する四国遍路の社会システム、巡礼の理論におけるグローバルな視点を明らかにする。
Travel/pilgrimage writings constitute one of the most important literary genres in Japan, and these texts provide critical understandings of social perspectives, religious ideologies, and ritual behaviors. Traditionally, the texts of traveling truth-seekers, including those written by luminaries such as Ennin 円仁, Saigyō 西行, Dōgen 道元, and Bashō 芭蕉, have both echoed and trumpeted the country’s religious and cultural development. However, the significance of pilgrim (巡礼者) writing is not confined to Japan’s past. The Shikoku henro is almost certainly the most literary pilgrimage in the world, and yet this global significance has been practically ignored by researchers of the journey until now. This rich and easily accessible database with hundreds of published books offers a neglected treasure-trove of potential social scientific insights.
In Japanese popular culture, the journey to the 88-places of Shikoku or Shikoku henro, has become the definitive spiritual journey for the nation. The legendary origins of the pilgrimage stem from the 8th and 9th century Buddhist priest Kūkai 空海, who is considered to be the founder of Shingon esoteric (真言密教) Buddhism in Japan and who is posthumously know by the saintly title Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師. The allure of the journey has matured over 400 years of history, and the pilgrimage is rediscovered by segments of each successive generation. The spiritual practice centers around visiting 88 Buddhist temples on the island in a 1200km circuit, but, importantly, the appeal of the pilgrimage goes well beyond the confines of any particular religious or sectarian orientation.
From the Edo period to the present, the Shikoku henro has inspired a deluge of publications, including guidebooks and personal accounts of the experience. Significantly, the publication of henro-related texts has reached a dramatic climax in the Heisei period, especially in the last 15 years, with the advent of what might be described as a literary boom. Focusing almost exclusively on the publication numbers, Satō Hisamitsu (2006) has shown that the quantity of published texts grew exponentially during the early years of the Heisei era. My own research suggests this flurry of publication reached a peak around 2008. While the Shikoku pilgrimage has been the object of numerous scholarly studies, the hundreds of recently published first-person henro accounts (日記、遍路記、体験記、道中記), have been remarkably neglected, despite their prevalence and prominence. Fujiwara Takehiro (2003) published a single small scale study in a university kiyō that looked at diaries from the 1990s to support the thesis that positive benefits from the henro might be considered “pilgrimage psychotherapy” (巡礼心理療法). Likewise, Ian Reader (2005) considers a handful of personal accounts to support his seminal overview treatment of the journey. Nonetheless, the usefulness and influence of this powerful genre of literature has only been considered at length in my own research on the topic.
Japan's Buddha Women: Fashion, Fandom, and Face to Face Encounters
In the summer of 2009, a sign towering above a large display in an store belonging to the Japanese multi-media retailer Tsutaya in Osaka read, "Butsuzō ga atsui!" or "Buddhist images are hot!" If that sounds oddly like a statement that might come from the self-described Japanophile, Paris Hilton, it is then perhaps not surprising that a good number of books in the display were written by and being directly marketed to young, fashion-conscious women. Important and seemingly original discourses pertaining to women and Buddhism have emerged recently in Japanese popular media, fueled especially with the arrival of the so-called Buddhist-image Boom (Butsuzō-boom) or Buddhist-image Mania (Butsuzō-mania). Notions of feminine identity fused with Buddhist culture and practice have recently been a common feature of a deluge of books, T.V. programs, magazine articles, and newspaper articles. Authoritative lay women, who can be seen as the key figures of the trend, have promoted novel identities including that of butsujo (Buddha-women), butsuzō gaaru (Buddha-image girl), and bukkyō-joshi (Buddhism-women). This examination looks at the phenomenon of contemporary Buddha-women through the influence of its principal figures and their characterizations of Buddhist thought and practice. I will show that—as the aforementioned book display implies— notions of Buddha Women are intimately tied to an aura of fashionability. As such, media representations are predicated on a sense of newness and originality. Thus, from an initial perspective, Buddha Women might be thought of as ushering in a sort of sea-change in the landscape of contemporary Japanese Buddhism. However, in this examination, I argue that while notions of a new feminine Buddhism are significant insofar as they demonstrate newly found feminine Buddhist authority, the movement can be seen to be closely aligned with historical and contemporary trends in Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage culture, which itself often exists as a freestanding popular spiritual movement.
A Sutra, Science, and Spirituality: Contemporary, Popular, "Scientific" Commentaries on Heart Sutra in Japan
A survey of contemporary popular media in Japan uncovers a fantastic volume of texts and homepages dealing with religious topics such as pilgrimage, sacred art, and meditation in an inviting and open-ended fashion. This trend, dubbed by Japanese enthusiasts and commentators alike as the "spirituality boom", displays a strong preoccupation with Buddhism, which is most often treated as a non-sectarian source of truth and healing. Intriguingly, these discourses also have a philosophical side with popular commentaries on the Heart Sutra (Hannyashingyō) exploding exponentially in number over the past ten years. Authorship of these commentaries, like the spirituality trend more generally, shows a marked shift away from traditional Buddhist leadership in the form of clergy, towards laypersons ranging widely from comedians to biologists. This paper explores "scientific" discourses related to the Heart Sutra, especially with respect to the works of Doi Toshitada and Yanagisawa Keiko. I critically consider how a certain palatability of Buddhism is proffered by taking it out of the realm of priests and faith and into that of scientists and reason.
Exploring Devotees of a Sexy Cyber Green-Haired Guru
Hatsune Miku is a largely fan-constructed Japanese popular idol. If we admit enough commonality to reference her as a singular phenomenon, she is arguably the greatest cyber-celebrity of all time. And yet, outside of a few skeletal details about Miku’s character—the fact that she has green hair and is a 16-year-old “android diva of the near future”—her image and character are that of a total digital blank slate. She is invented and reinvented constantly by tech savvy artists, sometimes working in collaboration, who give her a voice through vocal software and give her a body through animation programs, cartoon depictions, and even holographic projections. While most often rendered as a simplistic teenage sex object of a style commonly found with so-called lolicon manga and anime, Hatsune Miku is also depicted in dozens of popular videos as a powerful spiritual leader. In this role, she often chants Japan’s most popular Buddhist sutra, the philosophically difficult Heart Sutra or Hannyshingyō. Fan comments posted with Heart Sutra videos hosted on YouTube and Nico Nico Dōga suggest that these performances are being received as inspiring and as having genuine meaning connected with enlightenment, death, and deep understanding of the universe. This research ponders whether these interpretations point to an underlying sense of belonging that is strong enough to constitute a decentralized and plural online spiritual community. That is to say, do shared spiritual visions of these Miku presentations suggest a sort of cyber-comradeship or communitas?
Hatsune Miku is a largely fan-constructed Japanese popular idol. If we admit enough commonality to reference her as a singular phenomenon, she is arguably the greatest cyber-celebrity of all time. And yet, outside of a few skeletal details about Miku’s character—the fact that she has green hair and is a 16-year-old “android diva of the near future”—her image and character are that of a total digital blank slate. She is invented and reinvented constantly by tech savvy artists, sometimes working in collaboration, who give her a voice through vocal software and give her a body through animation programs, cartoon depictions, and even holographic projections. While most often rendered as a simplistic teenage sex object of a style commonly found with so-called lolicon manga and anime, Hatsune Miku is also depicted in dozens of popular videos as a powerful spiritual leader. In this role, she often chants Japan’s most popular Buddhist sutra, the philosophically difficult Heart Sutra or Hannyshingyō. Fan comments posted with Heart Sutra videos hosted on YouTube and Nico Nico Dōga suggest that these performances are being received as inspiring and as having genuine meaning connected with enlightenment, death, and deep understanding of the universe. This research ponders whether these interpretations point to an underlying sense of belonging that is strong enough to constitute a decentralized and plural online spiritual community. That is to say, do shared spiritual visions of these Miku presentations suggest a sort of cyber-comradeship or communitas?
Video Conference Presentation on Hatsune Miku and the Heart Sutra for Anthropologist of Japan in Japan
Presented on 12/2/2012 (Draft; not for citation)
image credit
Shock Treatment on an Inpatient Island: Finding Anxious Cures on Pilgrimage in Shikoku
Abstract: The journey to the 88 holy places of the Japanese island of Shikoku, or Shikoku henro, has been employed to serve the needs and desires of the faithful since the early Edo era. A significant proportion of pilgrims travel to the island in search of cures for various physical and mental ailments. This research examines the characterization of cures in the writings of contemporary Shikoku pilgrims. The essay argues that modern cures for psychological difficulties are often tied to stress and even trauma the pilgrim endures on the trail, rather than a commonly expected soothing type of healing.
Abstract: The journey to the 88 holy places of the Japanese island of Shikoku, or Shikoku henro, has been employed to serve the needs and desires of the faithful since the early Edo era. A significant proportion of pilgrims travel to the island in search of cures for various physical and mental ailments. This research examines the characterization of cures in the writings of contemporary Shikoku pilgrims. The essay argues that modern cures for psychological difficulties are often tied to stress and even trauma the pilgrim endures on the trail, rather than a commonly expected soothing type of healing.
