This study involves a fourteen-hundred-kilometer-long pilgrimage around Japan's fourth largest island, Shikoku. In traveling the circuit of the eighty-eight Buddhist temples that make up the route, pilgrims make their journey together with Kobo Daishi (774-835), the holy miracle-working figure who is at the heart of the pilgrimage. Once seen as a marginal practice, recent media portrayal of the pilgrimage as a symbol of Japanese cultural heritage has greatly increased the number of participants, both Japanese and foreign. In this absorbing look at the nature of the pilgrimage, Ian Reader examines contemporary practices and beliefs in the context of historical development, taking into account theoretical considerations of pilgrimage as a mode of activity and revealing how pilgrimages such as Shikoku may change in nature over the centuries. This rich ethnographic work covers a wide range of pilgrimage activity and behavior, drawing on accounts of pilgrims traveling by traditional means on foot as well as those taking advantage of the new package bus tours, and exploring the pilgrimage's role in the everyday lives of participants and the people of Shikoku alike. It discusses the various ways in which the pilgrimage is made and the forces that have shaped it in the past and in the present, including history and legend; the island's landscape and residents; the narratives and actions of the pilgrims and the priests who run the temples; regional authorities; and commercial tour operators and bus companies.
目次
Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Pilgrimage, practice, meanings: Making pilgrimages in Shikoku 11 Chapter 2 Making landscapes: Geography, symbol, legend and traces 69 Chapter 3 Making pilgrimages: pilgrims, motives and meanings 133 Chapter 4 History, footsteps and customs: Making the pre-modern pilgrimage 189 Chapter 5 Shaping the pilgrimage: from poverty to the package tour in post-war Japan 273 Chapter 6 Walking pilgrimages: Meaning and experience on the pilgrim's way 344 Chapter 7 Making bus pilgrimages: Practice and experience on the package tour 403 Chapter 8 A way of life: Pilgrimage, transformation and permanence 455 10. Concluding Comments 487 APPENDICES Appendix One The 88 Temples on the Shikoku Pilgrimage (in numerical order) 497 Appendix Two...Explanations for the number of Temples on the henro 504 Appendix Three.. Ways of doing the pilgrimage: average duration and costs 507
