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Paper short abstract

Various anime pilgrimage sites in rural Japan construct the idea of furusato by combining narratives from the anime with tourist imaginations. This paper explores how anime-inspired pilgrimages to sites in rural Japan not only invite pilgrims to visit, but also encourage them to return frequently.

Paper long abstract

Pilgrimages to sites featured in anime or other popular culture-inspired narratives, called seichi junrei, have received increasing attention from scholars and the media. While the focus of these discourses often lies in economic success, often linked to tourism and revitalization efforts, scant attention has been paid to how these pilgrimages are often recurring journeys. Similar to the rise of the nostalgia-driven furusato campaigns in the late 80s and 90s, local tourism associations have incorporated ideas of the furusato supplemented with narratives from the anime, to encourage fans and pilgrims to not only visit these pilgrimage sites, but to return to them. In this paper, I explore how seichi junrei is more than simply a passing trend, but another example of recurring pilgrimages often marginalized in the anthropological study of pilgrimages. At the same time, I will critically discuss how interested parties construct an image of the furusato, a home to return to, as a means of sustaining the pilgrimage. Through the case studies of pilgrimages to Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, and Yuwaku Onsen in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, I explore how the folkloresque is invoked in seichi junrei through a particular focus on the idea of the furusato.