JJRS > Volume 24 Issue 3-4 The Ideology of Landscape and the Theater of State: Insei Pilgrimage to Kumano (1090–1220)

Moerman, David

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The Kumano shrines were among the most popular pilgrimage sites of medieval Japan, drawing devotees across geographic, sectarian, class, and gender barriers. Yet this pilgrimage, which is often seen as a paradigmatic and formative example of Japanese popular religion, was instituted by the country’s ruling elite as an elaborate ritual of state. This essay examines the origins of Kumano pilgrimage in the Insei period to suggest how ideological concerns informed religious practices. By exploring the historical context of early Kumano pilgrimage, it argues against the notion of pilgrimage as an activity that levels status and power and offers an example of Japanese pilgrimage as an expression of political and cultural authority.