著者

松井 圭介 卯田 卓矢

出版者

公益社団法人 東京地学協会

雑誌

地学雑誌 (ISSN:0022135X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.124, no.6, pp.895-915, 2015-12-25 (Released:2016-01-27)

参考文献数

40

被引用文献数

2 4

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This paper examines the relation between traditional pilgrimages to Mt. Fuji and related tourism in the pre-modern era. It takes into account the worship of Mt. Fuji as a sacred mountain and the activities of oshi pilgrim masters (low-ranking Shinto priests) who organized pilgrimages. Chapter II presents an overview of the worship of Mt. Fuji in its original form before modern times, and the historical development of that worship. Like other sacred mountains in Japan, Fuji was worshiped from a distance as a kannabi, a place where gods were believed to be enshrined. It was also worshiped as an area of the underworld, takai, where ancestral spirits rested. In addition, the mountain was thought itself to be a god: both a benevolent god who brings water and an angry god who brings natural disasters through volcanic eruptions. Historically, pilgrimages by ascetics to Mt. Fuji are first found in sources from the Heian era to the Kamakura era. Subsequently, Mt. Fuji gradually became one of the mountains of Shugendo, a Japanese ascetic-shamanist belief system incorporating Shinto and Buddhist concepts. Chapter III examines the establishment of devotional Fuji confraternities, called Fuji-ko, and the popularization of pilgrimages in modern times. The viewpoints of the various types of Fuji-ko, their religious beliefs, and aspects of their pilgrimages are discussed. In general, a Fuji-ko confraternity consisted of three officers—komoto (host of the ko), a sendatsu (guide), and sewanin (manager)—and members. They made pilgrimages in a three-to-ten-year cycle; the journey was usually a round trip of eight days and seven nights from Edo (the former name of Tokyo) to the mountain, arranged by oshi at Kamiyoshida, at the mountain's foot. Although Fuji was the main destination, others were often included. Some of these were sacred places related to Kakugyo (the founder of the pilgrimage to Mt. Fuji) and Jikigyo Miroku (the famous leader of Fujiko in the Edo era), and other sacred mountains such as Mt. Ooyama. Chapter IV examines the characteristics of Kamiyoshida, the village of oshi priests, which provided pilgrims with a range of services, including accommodation and assistance in climbing the mountain. Kamiyoshida was a particularly large settlement among those at the foot of Mt. Fuji, featuring large residences and rectangular zoning with special entrance roads. At its peak, the village had more than 100 houses aligned in a row. It was very prosperous in summer, when pilgrimages were most frequent. Chapter V examines characteristics of the pilgrimage destination and politics of location. The fact that citizens of Edo could view Mt. Fuji even though it was far away gave it a disarming allure and familiarity. Climbing the mountain was regarded as a great accomplishment, and in this way the pilgrimage became a journey of faith. The oshi priests, as the receiving party, created various legends of faith to draw pilgrims to their village rather than other starting points to Mt. Fuji or other shrines or temples. These legends contributed to the rise of Kamiyoshida and the oshi, and ultimately to their downfall.