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- Convenors:
-
Aike Rots
(University of Oslo)
Emily Simpson (Wake Forest University)
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- Section:
- Religion and Religious Thought
- Location:
- Lokaal 0.1
- Sessions:
- Sunday 20 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract
Pilgrimage and space
Long Abstract
Pilgrimage and space
Accepted papers
Session 1 Sunday 20 August, 2023, -Paper short abstract
This paper analyses the meanings attributed to pilgrimage in The Japan Times (TJT), a private Japanese-run English-language newspaper founded in Tokyo in 1897, from the moment of its inception to 1933.
Paper long abstract
This paper analyses the meanings attributed to pilgrimage in The Japan Times (TJT), a private Japanese-run English-language newspaper founded in Tokyo in 1897, from the moment of its inception to 1933. TJT emphasized Japanese perspectives and pursued an agenda of modernization and promotion of the country. Until 1933, TJT was a private Japanese institution that largely conducted its own affairs, while not enjoying full-fledged autonomy. In 1933, however, TJT came under intense government control, and mostly became a mouthpiece of the state. The purpose of this paper is to examine the approach of TJT towards pilgrimage as a hybrid voice during the time that it was separate from the state while connected to it by a network of ties.
During this period, TJT reported and commented abundantly on all types of pilgrimage events. These included cases of court and government pilgrimage, mass pilgrimage on specific occasions, such as New Year or the cold season (kanmairi), and to destinations such as Mount Fuji, and individual pilgrimage to various places. TJT also included articles that analysed specific situations of pilgrimage in Japan from an abstract perspective. In these many references, three aspects stood out in terms of the approach towards the topic. One was the frequent identification and condemnation of superstition as a component of popular pilgrimage. Another was the association of pilgrimage with rationality. A third was the inclusion of elements of morality in the description of individual cases of pilgrimage. It is the intention of this paper to scrutinize these streaks and to understand whether, in this respect, TJT was ultimately acting as an echo of the state.
Paper short abstract
The aim of the presentation is to explore Tanaka Ippei’s first pilgrimage to Mecca, which he did in 1924 after converting to Islam in China. By studying his travelling diary and early essays we hope to enlighten both the history of pilgrimage itself and the evolution of his understanding of Islam.
Paper long abstract
Tanaka Ippei (Nur Muhammad Tanaka Ippei, 田中逸平, 1882-1934) was one of the first Japanese Muslims and pioneers of Islamic studies in Japan who significantly impacted both the construction of Japanese reception of Islam and its actual history. The presentation examines Tanaka's pilgrimage to Mecca by analyzing his travelling diary (“The Pilgrim of Islam: The Travel Account of a White Cloud”, 1925) and his early essays (“Islam and Pan-Asianism”, “Future of Chinese Muslims and Japanese Shintō”, 1924), on which he worked while the pilgrimage.
Tanaka Ippei converted to Islam in 1924 in Jinan, China after a range of meetings and discussions with the local Muslim community, followers of Chinese Hui-Ru, which is also called “Islamic Confucianism”. Before converting to Islam, Tanaka was working on the translation and adaptation of the Chinese philosopher Guan Zhong's (管仲, 720-645) legacy while teaching Confucianism to the Chinese students in the local school. By referencing the ideas from Guan Zhong's political philosophy, Tanaka is trying to legitimize the necessity of Japan's acceptance of Islam. At the beginning of 1924, Tanaka also became interested in Pan-Asianism, ideas which he tended to use in his Islamic journey in order to formulate a new understanding of Islam as an Asian religion, that has common points with Japanese Shintō (in the Muslims’ concept of “divinity”) and Buddhism (in term of the understanding concept of the “after-life” in Islam). By studying his diary, we can see, that Tanaka's view on Islam grow to a deeper understanding of this religion as he gets closer and closer to Mecca. The presentation is exploring the history of Tanaka’s pilgrimage to Mecca in 1924 with an accent on the evolution of his understanding of Islam.
Paper short abstract
“Hidden Christians” in the Gotō Archipelago in the 18th and 19th centuries escaped from persecution to establish settlements in difficult terrain and extreme climate. This presentation will aim to consider how we might understand the environment of the Gotō from the perspective of locals today.
Paper long abstract
The movement of “Hidden Christians” into the Gotō Archipelago in the 18th and 19th centuries represented their escape from persecutions, to the establishment of settlements in difficult terrain and in climatically extreme circumstances. Twelve UNESCO World Heritage sites in South-West Japan were registered in 2018 as ‘Hidden Christian sites’, to reflect the long prohibition of Christianity as well as its re-emergence after 1873. This paper will introduce my new research (supported by the Japan Foundation and the National Library of Australia) here and an oral history survey. I hope this oral history will allow us to understand better the development of their disparate religious landscapes and communities, but also the peoples’ relationships with that landscape and its transformations by refugees, multiple migrations, plus depopulation and rewilding, that decentres the Anthropocene. This is evident as houses are returned to forests, inoshishi (wild boar) descend on fields and distance becomes more pronounced. It has been noted that oral history, local and regional analyses offer important perspectives that have often been ignored. In this project, as such, I take Williams and Riley’s comment seriously: “The experiential, embodied, and situated element of human-environmental practices are an asset of oral testimonies, rather than a liability”. I will therefore focus in this paper not only on the UNESCO World Heritage sites, but also the wider landscape and sites mentioned as important or sacred by the interviewees.
This paper intends to build a foundation for a new understanding of the diversity of the community in the Gotō, its landscape and non-human environment. In late 2022 I interviewed 17 people, including Catholics, Buddhists and Hidden Christian descendants. I am developing a collaborative approach in my project to engagement in the writing of environmental history. Some of the community members included a Catholic who lives in a shrinking community still unreachable by road, a Buddhist ‘pilgrim’s guide’, and an 88 year-old ‘Hidden Christian’ descendant who tends her garden each day. It is the interviewees’ stories that will guide us to unravelling those relationships between the people, and the oceanic environment.