Even a fleeting glimpse of Mount Fuji's snow-capped peak emerging from
the clouds in the distance evokes the reverence it has commanded in
Japan from ancient times. Long considered sacred, during the medieval
era the mountain evolved from a venue for solitary ascetics into a
well-regulated pilgrimage site. With the onset of the Tokugawa period,
the nature of devotion to Mount Fuji underwent a dramatic change.
Working people from nearby Edo (now Tokyo) began climbing the mountain
in increasing numbers and worshipping its deity on their own terms,
leading to a widespread network of devotional associations known as
Fujikō.
In Faith in Mount Fuji Janine Sawada asserts that the rise of the Fuji
movement epitomizes a broad transformation in popular religion that took
place in early modern Japan. Drawing on existing practices and values,
artisans and merchants generated new forms of religious life outside the
confines of the sectarian establishment. Sawada highlights the
importance of independent thinking in these grassroots phenomena, making
a compelling case that the new Fuji devotees carved out enclaves for
subtle opposition to the status quo within the restrictive parameters of
the Tokugawa order. The founding members effectively reinterpreted
materials such as pilgrimage maps, talismans, and prayer formulae,
laying the groundwork for the articulation of a set of remarkable
teachings by Jikigyō Miroku (1671-1733), an oil peddler who became one
of the group's leading ascetic practitioners. His writings fostered a
vision of Mount Fuji as a compassionate parental deity who mandated a
new world of economic justice and fairness in social and gender
relations. The book concludes with a thought-provoking assessment of
Jikigyō's suicide on the mountain as an act of commitment to world
salvation that drew on established ascetic practice even as it conveyed
political dissent.
Faith in Mount Fuji is a pioneering work that contains a wealth of
in-depth analysis and original interpretation. It will open up new
avenues of discussion among students of Japanese religions and
intellectual history, and supply rich food for thought to readers
interested in global perspectives on issues of religion and society,
ritual culture, new religions, and asceticism.
