An unwelcome minority: banning Buddhist practices, marginalising itinerants, and constructing heritage in a Japanese pilgrimage

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Shikoku Pilgrimage is nowadays esteemed as a symbol of cultural heritage and tradition in Japan. Its origins are in the ascetic travels of itinerant devotees of the Buddhist figure Kōbō Daishi, who is the central focus of pilgrim devotion and is depicted in pilgrimage lore as a mendicant. These early ascetics relied on the Buddhist practice of mendicancy and were supported by the Shikoku custom of settai (almsgiving). However, in 2007, the pilgrimage temples banned pilgrims from alms solicitation within their precincts, claiming that those doing it (mostly itinerants who are a tiny minority among the pilgrim community) were not genuine pilgrims – even though they were following a practice central to the origins of the pilgrimage. This ban reflects historical patterns in different eras of pilgrims being marginalised, decried as antithetical to the ethos of the society, harassed, and even banned. In discussing the underlying reasons for the recent mendicancy ban, I show how it reflects a wider pattern of marginalising minorities within the pilgrimage community and reveals how religious and political authorities perceive the pilgrimage in any given era.