Pilgrimage and Movement of Religions
While some of these objects reflect the transmission of foreign faiths, others reveal how the concept of movement is deeply embedded within religious beliefs and practices. Originating in India, Buddhism spread to Japan in the sixth century and since developed into a major religion with a profound influence on daily life. Buddhist practitioners frequently visit temples and undertake pilgrimages along designated routes, seeking face-to-face encounters with deities through their icons. In many legends, sacred Buddhist icons demonstrate miraculous power and compassion by journeying across land and sea. Movement occurs not only across geographical spaces, but also between the earthly realm and Buddhist paradises. However, not all foreign religions were warmly received in Japan. A few decades after its introduction by Jesuit missionaries, Christianity faced severe persecutions in the late 16th and 17th centuries, reflecting state and local resistance to beliefs imported from distant shores.
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Senchaku hongan nenbutsu shū 選択本願念仏集 (Passages on the Nenbutsu Selected in the Original Vow), Vols. 2, 3
Kyoto, Japan: Akai Chōbei, late 18th–early 19th century, based on the 1744 edition
Personal Papers of Kate Hansen, PP 19, Box 11, Folder 13
These two illustrated volumes are part of the three-volume printed edition of Senchakushū, a canonical text in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. Written by Hōnen in 1198, it promoted the recitation of Amida Buddha’s name, known as nenbutsu, as the path to rebirth in Amida’s Pure Land. Volume two depicts a didactic tale, “The White Path between Two Rivers,” in which a man walks a narrow path from the earthly world to a Buddhist paradise, guided by Amida appearing in the sky. Volume three portrays Amida, accompanied by a celestial entourage, descending to welcome a devout believer who single-mindedly chants the nenbutsu right before death.
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Sangoku denrai Zenkōji Nyorai engi 三国伝来善光寺如来縁起 (Origin of the Zenkōji Amida Buddha Transmitted through Three Countries), Vol. 4
Kyoto, Japan: Hishiya Magobē, 1859
Call Number: C25918
Based on the 1692 printed edition, the five-volume 1859 Zenkōji Nyorai engi recounts the miraculous story of the Zenkōji Amida Triad (gilt bronze images of Amida Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas, Kannon and Seishi) that flew from India to Korea and then to Japan. The illustration depicts Honda Yoshimitsu, who saved the sacred icon from the Naniwa Canal and carried it to Shinano (Nagano Prefecture), where he built the temple Zenkōji to enshrine the triad in the 7th century.
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Zenkōji Hondō (Main Hall of Zenkōji Temple)
Nagano, Japan: Zenkōji Kaichō Kyōsankai Hakkō, 1912
Personal collection of Sherry Fowler
Postcards, such as this one from 1912, were issued to commemorate the hugely popular special showings (kaichō) of the Amida Buddha Triad held at Zenkōji temple in Nagano. This icon is so sacred that pilgrims are only allowed to see its copy during these special openings. Viewings are still held in the building pictured on the card. Photographic insets feature the temple’s abbot and abbess.
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Antonio Francisco Cardim (1596–1659)
Fasciculus e Iapponicis floribus suo adhuc madentibus sanguine (A Wreath of Japanese Flowers, Still Dripping in their Own Blood)
Rome: Typis Heredum Corbelletti, 1646
Call Number: Summerfield C1234
At the turn of the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries began to spread Christianity in Japan. Before a total ban on Christianity in 1639, Japanese rulers came to view it as a threat to social cohesion and local control, carrying out intermittent persecutions that included public executions and torture. John Chūgoku (above) was a Japanese Jesuit killed in Nagasaki during the Great Genna Martyrdom in 1622. Camillo Costanzo (below) was an Italian priest burned at the stake in Nagasaki five days later. Christianity was legalized in 1871.
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How to See Shikoku
Tokyo: Japan Tourist Bureau, 1936
Personal Papers of Kate Hansen, PP 19, Box 5, Folder 7
Attributed to Suiindō Takonoya 水引堂蛸室, a.k.a. Mizuhikidō Shōshitsu
Sanjūsansho Kannon narabini Yanagidani Nigatsudō Asakusa 三十三所観音 并二 柳谷二月堂浅草 (Thirty-three Kannon Pilgrimage Sites with Yanagidani, Nigatsudō, and Asakusa)
Japan, ca. 1860–1868
Call Number: P363
Pilgrimage Seal Book of Nara Area Temples
Nara, Japan, 1957
Personal collection of Sherry Fowler
These three objects reference Japan’s Shikoku and Saigoku pilgrimages, as well as other famous Buddhist sites. Pilgrims in white robes, as shown on the pamphlet, offer prayers at the temples during the pilgrimage. Then they collect seals, such as those stamped in the seal book. Prints depicting all the major icons along the pilgrimage routes were believed to hold spiritual merit and with the rise of copperplate printing in the 19th century, commercially produced prints like Sanjūsansho Kannon were made available to devotees.