The Chichibu 34 Fudasho Kannon Pilgrimage--An Introduction
According to the Kannon Sutra, originally the twenty-fifth chapter of the Lotus Sutra that was widely circulated in Japan as a Popular scripture in its own right, Kanzeon or Kannon (Avalokitesvara) Popular constantly surveys (kan) the world (ze) listening for the sounds (on) of suffering. Hearing sounds of distress, the “Sound Observer”—by virtue of “unblemished knowledge,” the “power of supernatural penetration” and “expedient devices”—is able to display a body “in the lands of all ten quarters.” Kannon does so “by resort to a variety of shapes,” changing into the most suitable of thirty-three different forms for preaching the Dharma to save all who are suffering. In eighteenth-century Japan, the promise of salvation given in the Kannon-gyõ was accepted as a spiritual fact. It was commonly believed that Kannon had manifested a saving presence at temples scattered throughout the country. Corresponding to Kannon’s thirty-three forms, pilgrimage routes to thirty-three temples were a major feature of Kannon devotionalism in Japan. The oldest of these, dating from the Heian period, is known as the Saikoku or “Western Provinces” pilgrimage, centered in the Kansai area. But there were others as well, such as the Bandõ Kannon pilgrimage centered on Kamakura, the center of the military government (bakufu) that rose to political power in the medieval period, and the Chichibu thirty-four Kannon pilgrimage in Saitama prefecture, which, was probably founded in the 15th century. Together these three pilgrimages formed a larger circuit of one hundred temples that are traveled by Japanese and foreign pilgrims alike, even in the present day pilgrimages---to a variety of kami, buddhas, and bodhisattvas.
Like any of them, the Chichibu pilgrimage or junrei is unique. It has its own history, special temples and sacred spaces, its own cast of holy men and pilgrims, and its own idiosyncratic mix of religious practices and secular entertainments. Perhaps Chichibu’s most distinctive features are its size and geographical location. Many pilgrimages, like the Shikoku eighty-eight temple circuit dedicated to the great Shingon ascetic; Kôbô Daishi are hundreds of kilometers long. In contrast, the Chichibu pilgrimage is small; it is only ninety kilometers long and takes only a few days to travel to its thirty-four temples. Yet, despite its small size, or perhaps because of it, Chichibu has attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims throughout its history, making it one of the more popular pilgrimages in Japan today.
What is striking about the Chichibu pilgrimage is that it defies simple categorization. First, it is a pilgrimage to sacred mountains. From the earliest records, Chichibu's mountains were venerated as abode of the kami who protected local farmers from natural calamities and ensured the fertility of their fields. The Kujiki, a late eighth century work, notes that during the reign of tenth emperor Sujin a governor was sent to worship the great god there. He established Chichibu shrine in a dense grove of trees called Haha sono mori that faced Mount Chichibu (now known as Mount Bukô), the tallest mountain at the southern end of the valley.
Second, Chichibu is also closely tied to charismatic holy men. Down through the centuries, the area was a magnet that attracted many Buddhist ascetics who climbed Mount Chichibu and other peaks as part of their religious austerities. For the most part, they came from two Kannon temples located to the northeast of the region, Mount Toki Jikôji, a Tendai temple that by the fifteenth century had become formally affiliated with the Honzan branch of Shugendô under the authority of the Shôgoin in Kyoto, and Mount Iwadono Shôbô-ji, a Shingon temple which became a center of the Tôzan branch of Shugendô under the authority of the Sanbôin of Daigoji. There are many legends about En no Gyôja, the mysterious founder of Shugendô, traveling to Chichibu. For example, according to the Iwadono Shôbôji enyû, he married a woman near Mount Iwadono in the reign of emperor Monmu. After he had three sons who later became local yamabushi, En no Gyôja miraculously flew to the mountains of Chichibu, where he landed on Mitsumine, Mount Bukô, and Ryô Mitake (Mount Ryô Kami). As we shall see, there are many legends about En no Gyôja, Gyôgi Bosatsu, Kôbô Daishi, and other famous Buddhist ascetics visiting Chichibu. At the very least, these tales point to the historical fact that many Shugendô ascetics did indeed travel to the region. Yamabushi from Jikô-ji, for example, regularly traveled to Mitsumine and other Chichibu peaks as part of their ninety day Summer ascetical training (kusan rengyô). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Chichibu was a thriving center for gyôja, especially for the Honzan branch of Shugendô with its large mountain retreat on Mitsumine.
Third, the Chichibu pilgrimage is also centered on the worship of the celestial divinity, the bodhisattva Kannon. Kannon is a great being (sattva) of mercy and compassion who can save beings from suffering. According to the Lotus Sutra as well as a variety of other short esoteric Buddhist sutras detailing the merits of specific devotional forms, Kannon offers many this worldly benefits (genze riyaku) to alleviate various woes, such as fire, drowning, execution, barreness, murder, curses from poisonous snakes and dangerous ghosts.” Moreover, in other important sutras, such as the Shin kegon-gyô , Kannon secures the rebirth (ôjô ) of suffering beings into his own Pure Land paradise on Mount Potalaka (Fudaraku).
Given the bodhisattva’ s salvific powers, it is no wonder that the non-sectarian Kannon faith rapidly spread even to a remote area like Chichibu (which was also a key place for mountain asceticism from medieval times). Ascetics enshrined Kannon images as gongen or divine manifestations in small halls (Kannondô ) throughout the valley. The Shugendô headquarters on Mitsumine, for example, enshrined an image of Kannon in the Kannon hall of Kôji, and Mount Bukô shrine also contained an image of Shô Kannon. By the fifteenth century approximately forty to fifty small Kannon halls had been built. Many of these eventually became included in the pilgrimage.
What is the history behind the Chichibu pilgrimage? Evidence points to the end of the fifteenth century as the origin of the route. Many of its temples, or “placard places” (fudasho) date from this period. Eleven of them have Kannon images dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This date is also indicated by the route’s origin legend which has it that thirteen wandering ascetics founded the route.The number thirteen is suggestive because during the fifteenth century faith in the thirteen buddhas (jûsan butsu) had become very popular with many cult sites scattered throughout the area. However, the most important support for this date is a temple list (fudasho banzuke) that dates from 1488. This document gives a brief account of the route’s origin and lists thirty-three Kannon halls, their number on the pilgrimage route, and the kind of image enshrined at each temple. It proves that Chichibu was already established as a regional thirty-three temple pilgrimage by the end of the fifteenth century. Chichibu was in fact one of thirteen regional Kannon pilgrimages (all except three were located in the eastern part of Japan) that appeared during this period.
The Chichibu pilgrimage was modeled after the Saikoku route, the oldest and most important Kannon pilgrimage dating from the Heian period and centered in the Kinai region near the old capital of Kyoto. Holy men and pilgrims who traveled the Saikoku and Bandô (founded during the reign of the third Shogun Sanetomo (1192-1219) and centered around Kamakura) routes were the ones who brought back the Kannon faith and the “walking religion” to Chichibu from their travels. Many gyôja entered Chichibu from Jikô-ji and Mount Iwadono Shôbô-ji, two temples on the Bandô route that were next door. At this time, there were also increasing numbers of ordinary Kantô pilgrims traveling the Saikoku and Bandô routes. Even so, for people living in Eastern Japan, the Saikoku route was distant, dangerous, expensive, and (due to its great length) often too time consuming to travel. It comes as no surprise that regional Kannon pilgrimages like Chichibu developed as a convenient alternative. For Kantô pilgrims, the Chichibu route had several things in its favor. Unlike the Saikoku route, it was close by, safe, relatively inexpensive, and, due to its small size, easy to do for everyone, including women, old people, and the poor. As the monk Enshû (Takebe Ayatari) noted in his guidebook for the route, the Chichibu sanjû yonsho Kannon reigen entsûden (1766), “the fact that you don’ t have to depart the district at all and do the entire pilgrimage in a few days is an expedient spiritual benefit of Kannon’ s great mercy and compassion and a profound kindness for the masses.”
The original route was closely tied to the Chichibu shrine, known at the time as Myôken Miya after the martial goddess who was worshiped by local warriors as the Buddhist deity manifested (suijaku) at the shrine. The pilgrimage started from temple number one near Myôken shrine and circled the valley, ending at Mount Bukô to the south. Chishima Hisashi, a local Chichibu historian, argues that this order makes sense religiously because of the spatial symbolism at work. The goddess Myôken is associated with the north, and is identified particularly with the seven northern stars (hokuto shichisei, or the Big Dipper). In contrast, Kannon is associated with the south where the bodhisattva’s paradise on Mount Fudaraku lies in the southern ocean. In other words, the circuit alternated between two deities who guarded respectively the northern and southern halves of Chichibu. Chishima dates the founding of the pilgrimage exactly to 1417, the date when Myôken Miya was restored to its former glory by local war lords, a time that also coincides with the rising popularity of the Saikoku route.
During the next three centuries, three important developments transformed the Chichibu pilgrimage into what it is today. The first historical development was the rising prominence of the Rinzai and, later, by the Soto sects. The two Zen sects replaced the Tendai and Shingon, which had previously been the dominant ecclesiastical powers in the region. Through the patronage of local warrior families, Zen temples weathered the destructive wars that raged throughout the Kantô area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Gradually, they were able to extend their control over the entire valley, subsuming many of the original Kannon pilgrimage fudasho under their administration. By the end of the nineteenth century, seven Rinzai and eleven Soto temples were included in the Chichibu pilgrimage. Zen made even further inroads after the Meiji government’s prohibition of Shugendô and the formal separation of Shinto from Buddhism (shinbutsu bunri) at the end of the nineteenth century. These offered policies led to the forced transfer of temples that had been affiliated with mountain Buddhism to the more “purist” Zen schools that eschewed any overtly syncretistic tendencies with the native tradition of Shinto. At present, eleven of the fudasho are under Rinzai and twenty are under Soto temple control. The important role Zen has played makes the Chichibu pilgrimage unique compared to the Saikoku and Bandô pilgrimages, which still have a majority of temples affiliated with either the Tendai or Shingon Buddhist schools. The result is a route that is rich in Zen Buddhist imagery. The fact that paintings and statues of Bodhidharma appear along side statues of En no Gyôja and esoteric Buddhist Kannon icons suggests the eclectic mix of Zen, Shugendô, Tendai, and Shingon Buddhism that can be found at Chichibu temples.
A second major development was the addition of Shinfuku-ji (presently temple number two) as the thirty-fourth fudasho. This addition was unprecedented in the history of Kannon cult in Japan. Kannon pilgrimage routes, like their original prototype, the Saikoku route, typically had thirty-three temples. Thirty-three is a sacred number. According to the Lotus Sutra, it corresponds to the thirty-three different forms Kannon uses to preach the Dharma. Why the Chichibu pilgrimage departed from this norm with thirty-four temples points to its special character? According to the earliest extant placard card (nôsatsu) of the route, from the fifth year of Tenbun (1536), the Chichibu route was part of the one hundred Kannon pilgrimage (junrei). This phrase suggests that Chichibu had changed dramatically. By this time it was no longer a local pilgrimage centered around Myôken shrine, but was nationally recognized and ritually linked to the Saikoku and Bandô routes. The three Kannon pilgrimages formed a mega-circuit of one hundred temples. However, it is not until the Genroku period (1688-1704), a time of relative peace and prosperity, that we find numerous placards attesting to large numbers of pilgrims traveling to the one hundred Kannon sites as well as numerous guidebooks and documents mentioning the thirty-four and one hundred temple circuits.
The third major development was the popularization of the Chichibu pilgrimage beginning in the Genroku period (1688-1703). In this period Kannon was a “god in vogue” (hayarigami) who was worshipped as a spiritual benefactor and as a source for miracles. This was especially true during the years of the horse (umadoshi), the twelfth year in the sexagenary cycle when the normally hidden images were unveiled for public devotion (igaichô). At these times, large numbers of pilgrims traveled the route. For example, in the third year of Kanen (1750) the Chichibu chief magistrate of the Abe clan of Oshi domain’s census found that over fifty-three thousand pilgrims did the pilgrimage during the first three months of that year. This is an amazing number considering the fact that only seventeen thousand people lived in the sixteen villages of Chichibu at the time. Interest in the Chichibu pilgrimage was also fueled by the special public exhibitions of the normally hidden Chichibu main images in the city of Edo (modern day Tokyo) itself. This practice, known as dekaichô was inaugurated by individual Chichibu temples in the late seventeenth century, who used it to solicit funds for their building restoration projects.
By 1764 all thirty-four Chichibu images were put on display at Koishikawa Gokoku temple in Edo. This exhibit was wildly successful. So many people were packed into the temple grounds to see the sacred icons that there was no room to move. A second general dekaichô in 1775 secured Chichibu’ s fame among the Edo populace. A glittering array of the rich and powerful made their appearance to worship the Chichibu Kannon statues. Women from the inner palace, feudal lords, and banner men (hatamoto), but even more significantly, a representative of the tenth Shogun Ieharu (1737-86) attended. This in effect gave an official stamp of approval to the pilgrimage, and from this point on, the popularity of the Chichibu pilgrimage was assured. Throughout the nineteenth century there were annually between thirty to forty thousand pilgrims who came to Chichibu. The peak years of the Chichibu junrei were during the Bunka and Bunsei periods (1804-1830), a time coinciding with the explosion in numbers of pilgrims who traveled to Ise and other important pilgrimage routes throughout Japan. In Chichibu, over twenty to thirty thousand pilgrims a day were recorded during this period.
There are many reasons for this upsurge of pilgrims. The peace brought by the unification of the country under the Tokugawa house, the construction of new roads, good lodgings, rising agricultural productivity, a new money economy, and rapid economic development giving people increased prosperity and leisure time to travel were some of the positive factors encouraging lay pilgrimage during this period. More specifically, Chichibu was easily accessible via several routes. People from the northern Kantô region and north-eastern Japan could stop off on their return trip from Edo or Ise via the Shinano road. Chichibu was also close to the city of Edo from which it was possible via three major routes to take a short and inexpensive trip that took no more than five to seven days total. Since the western half of Chichibu was under the direct control of the Shogunate, there was also no travel barrier (sekisho) between Chichibu and the city of Edo. This meant unrestricted travel to Chichibu for both men and women, Edo townspeople and Kantô farmers. The increasing numbers of Edo pilgrims had an impact on the arrangement of the route. In the Entsûden and other eighteenth century travel guides, Jô-ji, which had been temple number one in the original 1488 list, was demoted to temple number seventeen. Shimabu-ji, which was originally number twenty-four, became the first temple on the pilgrimage. This change in the order of the route was due to Shimabu-ji’ s proximity to Edo via the Sadamine pass.
Like many other pilgrimages, the Chichibu route has enjoyed a second boom since the 1960s after a long period of decline. Ten thousand pilgrims came during the kaichô of 1966. The numbers climbed to over sixty thousand pilgrims annually by 1978. One reason for this dramatic increase was the establishment of a Chichibu pilgrimage association (rengôkai) and other local heritage preservation groups who promoted Chichibu as a Japanese cultural treasure. Another important reason is the development of an efficient regional mass transportation system . The construction of the Seibu railroad in 1969 and the Hanazono interchange on the Kanetsu expressway made Chichibu readily accessible to millions of people. If you go by express train from Ikebukuro station, it now takes only eighty-three minutes to get to Seibu Chichibu station. Because it lies on “Tokyo’s doorstep,” Chichibu is easily accessible to tourists and pilgrims. Evidence for the increasing popularity in recent decades is evinced in the kaichô of 1984 that celebrated the seven hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the route. Over two hundred thousand people participated. These enormous numbers have continue to typify the pilgrimage in the most recent survey. In the three month period from April to June during the kaichô of 1996, over 180,000 people went on the Chichibu pilgrimage. Recent kaichô, however, have seen a drop in numbers, reflecting a wider trend in declining numbers of pilgrims going on pilgrimages.
This decline has been compensated somewhat, by the popularity of another form of form of pilgrimage. Journeys by fans of hit animated films and television shows, known in Japan as seichi junrei (literally, pilgrimage to sacred places). Recently, the Chichibu route has been associated with one of these anime pilgrimages. Over in the past two years, fans of a popular Japanese animated cartoon series pilgrimage whose story takes place is Chichibu are flocking to the sites that appear in the TV series. Now Chichibu has become one of the hottest fan pilgrimage in Japan all due to the popularity of a hit eleven episode anime that appeared on Fuji television from April to June 2011, Ano hi mita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai (literally,"We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day”). Many younger people can be found at Chichibu shrine and especially at Fudasho 17, Jorin-ji temple, which is an important site in the anime where the key characters of the story get together. Ano hana pilgrimage in Chichibu has revitalized tourism in the area and has led to new ways of envisioning sacred space in what was a traditionally religious Kannon pilgrimage route.
Like any of them, the Chichibu pilgrimage or junrei is unique. It has its own history, special temples and sacred spaces, its own cast of holy men and pilgrims, and its own idiosyncratic mix of religious practices and secular entertainments. Perhaps Chichibu’s most distinctive features are its size and geographical location. Many pilgrimages, like the Shikoku eighty-eight temple circuit dedicated to the great Shingon ascetic; Kôbô Daishi are hundreds of kilometers long. In contrast, the Chichibu pilgrimage is small; it is only ninety kilometers long and takes only a few days to travel to its thirty-four temples. Yet, despite its small size, or perhaps because of it, Chichibu has attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims throughout its history, making it one of the more popular pilgrimages in Japan today.
What is striking about the Chichibu pilgrimage is that it defies simple categorization. First, it is a pilgrimage to sacred mountains. From the earliest records, Chichibu's mountains were venerated as abode of the kami who protected local farmers from natural calamities and ensured the fertility of their fields. The Kujiki, a late eighth century work, notes that during the reign of tenth emperor Sujin a governor was sent to worship the great god there. He established Chichibu shrine in a dense grove of trees called Haha sono mori that faced Mount Chichibu (now known as Mount Bukô), the tallest mountain at the southern end of the valley.
Second, Chichibu is also closely tied to charismatic holy men. Down through the centuries, the area was a magnet that attracted many Buddhist ascetics who climbed Mount Chichibu and other peaks as part of their religious austerities. For the most part, they came from two Kannon temples located to the northeast of the region, Mount Toki Jikôji, a Tendai temple that by the fifteenth century had become formally affiliated with the Honzan branch of Shugendô under the authority of the Shôgoin in Kyoto, and Mount Iwadono Shôbô-ji, a Shingon temple which became a center of the Tôzan branch of Shugendô under the authority of the Sanbôin of Daigoji. There are many legends about En no Gyôja, the mysterious founder of Shugendô, traveling to Chichibu. For example, according to the Iwadono Shôbôji enyû, he married a woman near Mount Iwadono in the reign of emperor Monmu. After he had three sons who later became local yamabushi, En no Gyôja miraculously flew to the mountains of Chichibu, where he landed on Mitsumine, Mount Bukô, and Ryô Mitake (Mount Ryô Kami). As we shall see, there are many legends about En no Gyôja, Gyôgi Bosatsu, Kôbô Daishi, and other famous Buddhist ascetics visiting Chichibu. At the very least, these tales point to the historical fact that many Shugendô ascetics did indeed travel to the region. Yamabushi from Jikô-ji, for example, regularly traveled to Mitsumine and other Chichibu peaks as part of their ninety day Summer ascetical training (kusan rengyô). In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Chichibu was a thriving center for gyôja, especially for the Honzan branch of Shugendô with its large mountain retreat on Mitsumine.
Third, the Chichibu pilgrimage is also centered on the worship of the celestial divinity, the bodhisattva Kannon. Kannon is a great being (sattva) of mercy and compassion who can save beings from suffering. According to the Lotus Sutra as well as a variety of other short esoteric Buddhist sutras detailing the merits of specific devotional forms, Kannon offers many this worldly benefits (genze riyaku) to alleviate various woes, such as fire, drowning, execution, barreness, murder, curses from poisonous snakes and dangerous ghosts.” Moreover, in other important sutras, such as the Shin kegon-gyô , Kannon secures the rebirth (ôjô ) of suffering beings into his own Pure Land paradise on Mount Potalaka (Fudaraku).
Given the bodhisattva’ s salvific powers, it is no wonder that the non-sectarian Kannon faith rapidly spread even to a remote area like Chichibu (which was also a key place for mountain asceticism from medieval times). Ascetics enshrined Kannon images as gongen or divine manifestations in small halls (Kannondô ) throughout the valley. The Shugendô headquarters on Mitsumine, for example, enshrined an image of Kannon in the Kannon hall of Kôji, and Mount Bukô shrine also contained an image of Shô Kannon. By the fifteenth century approximately forty to fifty small Kannon halls had been built. Many of these eventually became included in the pilgrimage.
What is the history behind the Chichibu pilgrimage? Evidence points to the end of the fifteenth century as the origin of the route. Many of its temples, or “placard places” (fudasho) date from this period. Eleven of them have Kannon images dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This date is also indicated by the route’s origin legend which has it that thirteen wandering ascetics founded the route.The number thirteen is suggestive because during the fifteenth century faith in the thirteen buddhas (jûsan butsu) had become very popular with many cult sites scattered throughout the area. However, the most important support for this date is a temple list (fudasho banzuke) that dates from 1488. This document gives a brief account of the route’s origin and lists thirty-three Kannon halls, their number on the pilgrimage route, and the kind of image enshrined at each temple. It proves that Chichibu was already established as a regional thirty-three temple pilgrimage by the end of the fifteenth century. Chichibu was in fact one of thirteen regional Kannon pilgrimages (all except three were located in the eastern part of Japan) that appeared during this period.
The Chichibu pilgrimage was modeled after the Saikoku route, the oldest and most important Kannon pilgrimage dating from the Heian period and centered in the Kinai region near the old capital of Kyoto. Holy men and pilgrims who traveled the Saikoku and Bandô (founded during the reign of the third Shogun Sanetomo (1192-1219) and centered around Kamakura) routes were the ones who brought back the Kannon faith and the “walking religion” to Chichibu from their travels. Many gyôja entered Chichibu from Jikô-ji and Mount Iwadono Shôbô-ji, two temples on the Bandô route that were next door. At this time, there were also increasing numbers of ordinary Kantô pilgrims traveling the Saikoku and Bandô routes. Even so, for people living in Eastern Japan, the Saikoku route was distant, dangerous, expensive, and (due to its great length) often too time consuming to travel. It comes as no surprise that regional Kannon pilgrimages like Chichibu developed as a convenient alternative. For Kantô pilgrims, the Chichibu route had several things in its favor. Unlike the Saikoku route, it was close by, safe, relatively inexpensive, and, due to its small size, easy to do for everyone, including women, old people, and the poor. As the monk Enshû (Takebe Ayatari) noted in his guidebook for the route, the Chichibu sanjû yonsho Kannon reigen entsûden (1766), “the fact that you don’ t have to depart the district at all and do the entire pilgrimage in a few days is an expedient spiritual benefit of Kannon’ s great mercy and compassion and a profound kindness for the masses.”
The original route was closely tied to the Chichibu shrine, known at the time as Myôken Miya after the martial goddess who was worshiped by local warriors as the Buddhist deity manifested (suijaku) at the shrine. The pilgrimage started from temple number one near Myôken shrine and circled the valley, ending at Mount Bukô to the south. Chishima Hisashi, a local Chichibu historian, argues that this order makes sense religiously because of the spatial symbolism at work. The goddess Myôken is associated with the north, and is identified particularly with the seven northern stars (hokuto shichisei, or the Big Dipper). In contrast, Kannon is associated with the south where the bodhisattva’s paradise on Mount Fudaraku lies in the southern ocean. In other words, the circuit alternated between two deities who guarded respectively the northern and southern halves of Chichibu. Chishima dates the founding of the pilgrimage exactly to 1417, the date when Myôken Miya was restored to its former glory by local war lords, a time that also coincides with the rising popularity of the Saikoku route.
During the next three centuries, three important developments transformed the Chichibu pilgrimage into what it is today. The first historical development was the rising prominence of the Rinzai and, later, by the Soto sects. The two Zen sects replaced the Tendai and Shingon, which had previously been the dominant ecclesiastical powers in the region. Through the patronage of local warrior families, Zen temples weathered the destructive wars that raged throughout the Kantô area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Gradually, they were able to extend their control over the entire valley, subsuming many of the original Kannon pilgrimage fudasho under their administration. By the end of the nineteenth century, seven Rinzai and eleven Soto temples were included in the Chichibu pilgrimage. Zen made even further inroads after the Meiji government’s prohibition of Shugendô and the formal separation of Shinto from Buddhism (shinbutsu bunri) at the end of the nineteenth century. These offered policies led to the forced transfer of temples that had been affiliated with mountain Buddhism to the more “purist” Zen schools that eschewed any overtly syncretistic tendencies with the native tradition of Shinto. At present, eleven of the fudasho are under Rinzai and twenty are under Soto temple control. The important role Zen has played makes the Chichibu pilgrimage unique compared to the Saikoku and Bandô pilgrimages, which still have a majority of temples affiliated with either the Tendai or Shingon Buddhist schools. The result is a route that is rich in Zen Buddhist imagery. The fact that paintings and statues of Bodhidharma appear along side statues of En no Gyôja and esoteric Buddhist Kannon icons suggests the eclectic mix of Zen, Shugendô, Tendai, and Shingon Buddhism that can be found at Chichibu temples.
A second major development was the addition of Shinfuku-ji (presently temple number two) as the thirty-fourth fudasho. This addition was unprecedented in the history of Kannon cult in Japan. Kannon pilgrimage routes, like their original prototype, the Saikoku route, typically had thirty-three temples. Thirty-three is a sacred number. According to the Lotus Sutra, it corresponds to the thirty-three different forms Kannon uses to preach the Dharma. Why the Chichibu pilgrimage departed from this norm with thirty-four temples points to its special character? According to the earliest extant placard card (nôsatsu) of the route, from the fifth year of Tenbun (1536), the Chichibu route was part of the one hundred Kannon pilgrimage (junrei). This phrase suggests that Chichibu had changed dramatically. By this time it was no longer a local pilgrimage centered around Myôken shrine, but was nationally recognized and ritually linked to the Saikoku and Bandô routes. The three Kannon pilgrimages formed a mega-circuit of one hundred temples. However, it is not until the Genroku period (1688-1704), a time of relative peace and prosperity, that we find numerous placards attesting to large numbers of pilgrims traveling to the one hundred Kannon sites as well as numerous guidebooks and documents mentioning the thirty-four and one hundred temple circuits.
The third major development was the popularization of the Chichibu pilgrimage beginning in the Genroku period (1688-1703). In this period Kannon was a “god in vogue” (hayarigami) who was worshipped as a spiritual benefactor and as a source for miracles. This was especially true during the years of the horse (umadoshi), the twelfth year in the sexagenary cycle when the normally hidden images were unveiled for public devotion (igaichô). At these times, large numbers of pilgrims traveled the route. For example, in the third year of Kanen (1750) the Chichibu chief magistrate of the Abe clan of Oshi domain’s census found that over fifty-three thousand pilgrims did the pilgrimage during the first three months of that year. This is an amazing number considering the fact that only seventeen thousand people lived in the sixteen villages of Chichibu at the time. Interest in the Chichibu pilgrimage was also fueled by the special public exhibitions of the normally hidden Chichibu main images in the city of Edo (modern day Tokyo) itself. This practice, known as dekaichô was inaugurated by individual Chichibu temples in the late seventeenth century, who used it to solicit funds for their building restoration projects.
By 1764 all thirty-four Chichibu images were put on display at Koishikawa Gokoku temple in Edo. This exhibit was wildly successful. So many people were packed into the temple grounds to see the sacred icons that there was no room to move. A second general dekaichô in 1775 secured Chichibu’ s fame among the Edo populace. A glittering array of the rich and powerful made their appearance to worship the Chichibu Kannon statues. Women from the inner palace, feudal lords, and banner men (hatamoto), but even more significantly, a representative of the tenth Shogun Ieharu (1737-86) attended. This in effect gave an official stamp of approval to the pilgrimage, and from this point on, the popularity of the Chichibu pilgrimage was assured. Throughout the nineteenth century there were annually between thirty to forty thousand pilgrims who came to Chichibu. The peak years of the Chichibu junrei were during the Bunka and Bunsei periods (1804-1830), a time coinciding with the explosion in numbers of pilgrims who traveled to Ise and other important pilgrimage routes throughout Japan. In Chichibu, over twenty to thirty thousand pilgrims a day were recorded during this period.
There are many reasons for this upsurge of pilgrims. The peace brought by the unification of the country under the Tokugawa house, the construction of new roads, good lodgings, rising agricultural productivity, a new money economy, and rapid economic development giving people increased prosperity and leisure time to travel were some of the positive factors encouraging lay pilgrimage during this period. More specifically, Chichibu was easily accessible via several routes. People from the northern Kantô region and north-eastern Japan could stop off on their return trip from Edo or Ise via the Shinano road. Chichibu was also close to the city of Edo from which it was possible via three major routes to take a short and inexpensive trip that took no more than five to seven days total. Since the western half of Chichibu was under the direct control of the Shogunate, there was also no travel barrier (sekisho) between Chichibu and the city of Edo. This meant unrestricted travel to Chichibu for both men and women, Edo townspeople and Kantô farmers. The increasing numbers of Edo pilgrims had an impact on the arrangement of the route. In the Entsûden and other eighteenth century travel guides, Jô-ji, which had been temple number one in the original 1488 list, was demoted to temple number seventeen. Shimabu-ji, which was originally number twenty-four, became the first temple on the pilgrimage. This change in the order of the route was due to Shimabu-ji’ s proximity to Edo via the Sadamine pass.
Like many other pilgrimages, the Chichibu route has enjoyed a second boom since the 1960s after a long period of decline. Ten thousand pilgrims came during the kaichô of 1966. The numbers climbed to over sixty thousand pilgrims annually by 1978. One reason for this dramatic increase was the establishment of a Chichibu pilgrimage association (rengôkai) and other local heritage preservation groups who promoted Chichibu as a Japanese cultural treasure. Another important reason is the development of an efficient regional mass transportation system . The construction of the Seibu railroad in 1969 and the Hanazono interchange on the Kanetsu expressway made Chichibu readily accessible to millions of people. If you go by express train from Ikebukuro station, it now takes only eighty-three minutes to get to Seibu Chichibu station. Because it lies on “Tokyo’s doorstep,” Chichibu is easily accessible to tourists and pilgrims. Evidence for the increasing popularity in recent decades is evinced in the kaichô of 1984 that celebrated the seven hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the route. Over two hundred thousand people participated. These enormous numbers have continue to typify the pilgrimage in the most recent survey. In the three month period from April to June during the kaichô of 1996, over 180,000 people went on the Chichibu pilgrimage. Recent kaichô, however, have seen a drop in numbers, reflecting a wider trend in declining numbers of pilgrims going on pilgrimages.
This decline has been compensated somewhat, by the popularity of another form of form of pilgrimage. Journeys by fans of hit animated films and television shows, known in Japan as seichi junrei (literally, pilgrimage to sacred places). Recently, the Chichibu route has been associated with one of these anime pilgrimages. Over in the past two years, fans of a popular Japanese animated cartoon series pilgrimage whose story takes place is Chichibu are flocking to the sites that appear in the TV series. Now Chichibu has become one of the hottest fan pilgrimage in Japan all due to the popularity of a hit eleven episode anime that appeared on Fuji television from April to June 2011, Ano hi mita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai (literally,"We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day”). Many younger people can be found at Chichibu shrine and especially at Fudasho 17, Jorin-ji temple, which is an important site in the anime where the key characters of the story get together. Ano hana pilgrimage in Chichibu has revitalized tourism in the area and has led to new ways of envisioning sacred space in what was a traditionally religious Kannon pilgrimage route.
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