Lindsey DeWitt Prat, PhD

Religion, Pilgrimage, and Gender in Japan

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem · Spring 2021

Collage of Kumano kodō forest paths and a pilgrim in blue light.

I love teaching about religion, pilgrimage, and gender in Japan. Below you can check out the visual content of a recent class I guest taught for the Department of Asian Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (scroll to the right!).

Lecture slides

Title slide: Religion, Pilgrimage, and Gender in Japan.

Slide: lecture outline, from defining pilgrimage to the gender variable.

Slide: defining pilgrimage.

Slide: pilgrimage—what and where; junrei, henro, mōde.

Slide: elements—fire rites and a torii gate.

Slide: divinities—Buddhist statuary.

Slide: statues and portraits of monastic figures.

Slide: the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage.

Slide: Ise pilgrimage mandala prints.

Slide: the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage (Shikoku henro).

Slide: the Kumano kodō.

Slide: Ōminesan Shugendō—route map and practitioners.

Slide: Mt. Fuji—prints and early photographs of pilgrims.

Slide: pilgrimage—why; prayer and play (and business).

Slide: pilgrimage—how; ritual and repetition.

Slide: pilgrims’ stamps, amulets, and sellers.

Slide: pilgrimage slips and stamp books.

Slide: pilgrim staffs and offerings.

Slide: diagram of pilgrim equipment.

Slide: labeled drawings of pilgrim dress.

Slide: roots and routes.

Slide: map of Buddhism’s transmission across Asia.

Slide: Xuanzang portraits.

Slide: the strange terrains of mountains.

Slide: Mt. Sumeru.

Slide: Tōdaiji.

Slide: the Great Buddha’s engraved lotus petals and cosmology diagrams.

Slide: Shumisen models in museum displays.

Slide: Yoshino Mikumari Shrine.

Slide: sacred peaks montage.

Slide: mountain summit panoramas.

Slide: mountain mandalas—section title.

Slide: two mountain mandala paintings.

Slide: Mt. Hiei.

Slide: Kōyasan guide map.

Slide: map of Kii peninsula sacred geography.

Slide: Shugendō—waterfall, fire, and cliff austerities.

Slide: En no Gyōja, also known as En no Ozunu.

Slide: text panels on the Nihon ryōiki and the 1872 Shugendō prohibition.

Slide: En no Gyōja in modern manga and mascots.

Slide: Ōminesan Shugendō.

Slide: pilgrimage and the state—section title.

Slide: map of Japan with sacred mountains.

Slide: imperial journeys, 7th–9th centuries.

Slide: imperial and elite pilgrimage, 10th–13th centuries.

Slide: Fujiwara no Michinaga’s sutra cylinder.

Slide: a gilt bronze sutra container.

Slide: Kumano—map and monuments.

Slide: a Nachi pilgrimage mandala.

Slide: pilgrimage and the people—section title.

Slide: pilgrimage—who.

Slide: statues and portraits of itinerant holy figures.

Slide: early photographs and sketches of pilgrims.

Slide: Edo woodblock prints of pilgrimage crowds.

Slide: “why not?”—okage mairi print.

Slide: Fujikō—Mt. Fuji devotional prints.

Slide: fujizuka—miniature Fuji mounds.

Slide: “replica” or “copied” regional pilgrimages (utsushi reijō).

Slide: map of replica pilgrimage circuits across Japan.

Slide: women walking an indoor miniature circuit.

Slide: a red-lacquered hall with pilgrimage stations.

Slide: modern pilgrims on the road.

Slide: white-clad pilgrims in group ritual.

Slide: the gender variable—section title.

Slide: women pilgrims in prints and paintings.

Slide: Kumano bikuni and women religious figures.

Slide: UNESCO’s Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range (2004).

Slide: the Ōminesan gate with its women’s exclusion sign.

Slide: women’s prohibitions and boundaries (nyonin kinsei, nyonin kekkai).

Slide: painted Mt. Fuji with a boundary marker.

Slide: Fuji painting inscribed “no women beyond this point.”

Slide: Kumano bikuni picture-deciphering and the blood pool hell.

Slide: exclusion signs at trailheads today.

Slide: concluding reflections.

Slide: Kumano kodō forest scenes.

Slide: mountain ridge panoramas.

Slide: the Kumano kodō Online Shop.

Closing slide: thank you.

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