Prayers for safe driving 交通安全祈願

People in Japan may call for divine protection when driving or operating a vehicle. Here are some vehicles with various protective devices.

A shrine’s traffic safety sticker on the Japan Automobile Federation’s road service vehicle.

A shrine’s traffic safety sticker on a kindergarten bus.

A collection of traffic safety stickers

A shrine’s traffic safety sticker on a farm tractor.

A prayer for business prosperity painted on the back of a truck.

On a Shinto priest’s personal automobile, a Tengu mask, Okinawan Shisa statues and other amulets.

Doraemon.

Conference presentation 学会発表

On August 4, 2022, I presented online for the Japan: Pre-modern, Modern, Contemporary 9th International Conference (hybrid) hosted by the “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest. Participating in a panel titled “Craft, Leisure, and Sport in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Religions” I presented under the title “Butchering Cuties: The Violent Religious Symbolism Found on Votive Tablets from Pilgrimaging Anime Fans.” I wish to extend my deep gratitude to the organizers and to my fellow panel members.

ハイブリッドで開催された第9回国際学術大会「Japan: Pre-modern, Modern, Contemporary: A Return Trip from the East to the West, Learning in, about and from Japan」（於 “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest）にて「Butchering Cuties: The Violent Religious Symbolism Found on Votive Tablets from Pilgrimaging Anime Fans」というタイトルで2022年9月4日に発表しました。

The abstract for my presentation follows:

Butchering Cuties: The Violent Religious Symbolism Found on Votive Tablets from Pilgrimaging Anime Fans
It has become commonplace for the artists producing anime (animation) to draw upon real-world places and scenery. As a cultural by-product, fans search out and travel to the locales that function as the
inspiration for an anime’s setting. Fans often refer to this activity as seichi junrei 聖地巡礼, literally
sacred-site pilgrimage, investing it with a degree of socio-religious significance.
Beginning with a game that later developed into an anime series, Higurashi-no-naku-koro-ni ひぐらしのなく頃に (hereafter, Higurashi) exemplifies how an anime can generate a pilgrimage. Higurashi’s
pilgrimage emerged around 2007 in conjunction with its first television airing. Fans started visiting the
modeled village of Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its
rustic and nostalgic atmosphere. Similar to fans at other anime pilgrimage sites, Higurashi fans gathered
at a real-world Shinto shrine located in Shirakawa, where they began dedicating wooden votive tablets on
which they penned prayers to and illustrations of the Higurashi characters.
Such fan activity may be welcomed by communities hoping to increase their tourist draw and invigorate their local economy, but the fan presence at Shirakawa was not well-received by locals. The reason perhaps lies with the Higurashi storyline which follows a group of students who become entangled in a run of mysterious murders. Murders that are depicted in the series with bloody brutality. While most
fans illustrated their votive tablets with a cute and innocent likeness of the Higurashi’s characters, a
number of fans chose to deliver images of those same characters in their psychotic and butchering alter
ego. In this paper, I will focus on these darker artistic renderings and associated motifs in an effort to
elucidate the nature of religious devotion offered by fans to the Higurashi world.

Questionnaire: Religious belief アンケート：宗教・信仰について

This is a questionnaire given to university students.  大学生に対するアンケート.

2022年のアンケート（東北学院大学学部生）回答者35名 男性22名 女性32名

Survey of 54 Tohoku Gakuin University undergraduates (2022) 22 male & 32 female respondents

M = male F = female M/F = combined	M	ー	F	ー	M/ F	ー
	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
① Do you have a religious belief/faith? あなたは「信仰」をお持ちですか？	18%	82%	16%	84%	17%	83%
② Do you have a religion? あなたは「宗教」をお持ちですか？	32%	68%	16%	84%	22%	78%
③ Do you believe in existence of kami (gods)?　 あなたは「神」の存在を信じますか？	55%	45%	59%	41%	57%	43%
④ Do you believe in the existence of the soul after death? あなたは「霊魂」の存在を信じますか？	50%	50%	59%	41%	56%	44%
⑤ Do you believe in yūrei (ghosts)?  あなたは「幽霊」の存在を信じますか？	55%	45%	66%	34%	61%	39%

2017年のアンケート（東北学院大学）回答者44名

Survey of 44 Tohoku Gakuin University undergraduates (2017)

回答　Answer: 　はい　Yes  /  いいえ　No

①　9% / 91%

② 　9% / 91%

③　75% / 25%

④　70% / 30%

⑤　73% / 27 %

2016年のアンケート（東北学院大学）回答者26名

Survey of 26 Tohoku Gakuin University undergraduates (2016)

①  4% / 96%

②   12% / 88%

③  69% / 31%

④  73% / 27%

⑤  73% / 27 %

2009年のアンケート（金沢大学）回答者156名

Survey of 156 Kanazawa University undergraduates (2009)

① 25% / 75%

②  31% / 69%

③  51% / 49%

④ 60% / 40%

⑤  51% / 49%

2008年のアンケート（金沢大学）回答者105名

Survey of 105  Kanazawa University undergraduates (2008)

①　28% / 72%

②  33% / 67%

③   42% / 58%

④  66% / 33%

⑤  56% / 43%

Affirmative response tallies	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5
	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2022 Tohoku Gakuin Univ. 35 respondents	17%	22%	57%	56%	61%
2017 Tohoku Gakuin Univ. 44 respondents	9%	9%	75%	70%	73%
2016 Tohoku Gakuin Univ. 26 respondents	4%	12%	69%	73%	73%
2008 Kanazawa Univ. 156 respondents	25%	31%	51%	60%	51%
2008 Kanazawa Univ. 105 respondents	28%	33%	42%	66%	56%

Needles put to rest 針の安らぎの場

A memorial service for needles (針供養 hari kuyō) is held annually on February 8th at the Egaraten Shrine (荏柄天神社), located in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture.

Mostly women, but some men too, bring bent, rusted, broken, and otherwise exhausted needles to the shrine. After priests perform Shinto prayers (祝詞 norito), several blocks of tofu (bean curd) are placed before the assembled crowd. Then the participants bring forth their needles and prick them into the soft surface of the tofu, offering a final, soothing repose. Pressing their palms together in silent prayer, the shrinegoers express gratitude to the needles, who have sacrificed their tiny steel bodies to assist in the work of housewives, seamstresses, kimono makers, and hobbyists.

As the festival ends, elementary school students stop to pray at the shrine on their way home.

Miko (Shrine maiden).

Ume (plum) tree blossoms.

Kanagi Town 金木町

A look back at the town of Kanagi 金木町 in Aomori prefecture, now Goshogawara City 五所川原市(photographed in 2005, early morning). The town is known as the birthplace of Tsugaru-jamisen 津軽三味線 (Tsugaru style shamisen music) and as the hometown of the well-known author Dazai Osamu 太宰治 (1909-1948).

A shrine’s horse statue.

Street light with festival decorations.

Main street.

Unshō Temple 雲祥寺.

Statues of Jizō Bodhisattva 地蔵菩薩, a popular Buddhist saint who acts as a guardian of children and the patron deity of pregnant women.

Statues of Jizō Bodhisattva offered in memorial to the departed.

Phone booth elevated to compensate for heavy snowfall.

Dazai Osamu’s home, previously an inn, now a museum. When originally built, it offered a commanding view of the surrounding countryside from its second story (as most homes and businesses were single story structures).

Buddhist sermon 報恩講

Tōkushōji 徳性寺, a Jōdoshin sect temple, is located in Kaga City, Ishikawa prefecture. The following images show the annual hōonkō 報恩講 (Buddhist sermon lecture).

The temple gate decorated with paper lanterns.

Wheeled walkers parked in the garden.

Opening the door to the main hall.

A row of offering baskets handcrafted from plastic colanders and bamboo rods.

Collecting offerings.

The priest guest lecturer gives his sermon.

Shōjinryōri 精進料理, no meat or fish.

Banquet.

Behind the scenes, cooking and cleanup in the kitchen.

The Faithful’s Graffiti: Senjafuda 参拝者の千社札

Visitors to shrines and temples sometimes commemorate their visit by pasting a paper bearing their name (千社札 senjafuda) on the shrine and temple buildings and gates. Some shrines and temples treat this as a form of graffiti and warn against it. Nonetheless, the faithful seemingly do so as to receive some efficacy and as a way to say, “I was here.”

Here are some photos from the famous Eiheiji (永平寺) Buddhist temple in Fukui prefecture of a shrine covered with senjafuda.

Graffiti? Or a symbol of devotion?

Workshop presentation ワークショップ発表

On January 24, 2021, I presented at the online VIII – International Research Workshop “Mutual Images” hosted by Ryukoku University Kyoto. The workshop theme was “Japan Pilgrimages: Experiences and motivations behind cultural and spiritual peregrinations from and to East Asia.” My presentation title was “Ghostly Musings: When Anime Fans Traverse into the World of Natsume’s Book of Friends.”

I extend my deep gratitude to the organizers and to my fellow participants.

オンラインに開催された第8回国際学術会議「Mutual Images (ミューチュアル・イメージズ)」（於 龍谷大学）にて「幻を追う思いー『夏目友人帳』の世界に渡るファンたち」というタイトルで2021年1月24日に発表しました。

Tomb of Christ キリストの墓

Bus stop in front of “Christ Park” Shingo Town, Aomori Prefecture.

No buses on Sunday.

The grave of Christ in association with Coca-Cola.

“Christ’s home Shingo.” “Be careful of fires.”

Christ’s grave (background) and that of his brother named Isukiri (foreground).

A Journey to Koyasan 高野山への旅

Intensive Course at Kwansei Gakuin University 関西学院大学の集中講義

I have just completed an intensive course at Kwansei Gakuin University’s Graduate School of Sociology (Folklore and Anthropology Department) from February 24th thru the 28th. Over the course of fifteen lectures, the graduate students and I explored various topics under the broad themes of Japanese shamanism, Japanese rural society, Rites of passage, and Anime pilgrimages. My gratitude goes out to Prof. Shimamura Takanori for his kind invitation for me to lecture, as well as the graduate students who untiringly engaged with me throughout the 6 hour lecture days.

2月24日から28日までの関西学院大学社会学研究科（民俗学と人類学）での集中講義が無事に終わりました。 講義の中で日本のシャーマニズム、日本の農村社会、通過儀礼、アニメ聖地巡礼、ディジタル・フォークロアなどの幅広いトピックに関して講義をしました。 関西学院大学の島村恭則先生、そして大学院生の皆さまに大変感謝しております。

 

Palm reader 手相

Salvation sale 掛け軸売り場

Absence 欠席