Faculty Café: Dr. Mark MacWilliams on Visual Glut and Pilgrimage in 21st-Century Japan

What happens when centuries-old Buddhist pilgrimage traditions meet anime tourism, regional mascots, mass media, and consumer culture?

This summer, Dr. Mark MacWilliams traveled to Japan to complete the Chichibu Pilgrimage, one of the country’s three major pilgrimage routes dedicated to the Buddhist bodhisattva Kannon. His visit coincided with a special observance that occurs once every 12 years, when normally hidden sacred icons at Chichibu’s temples are displayed for worship.

In his talk, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Visual Glut and Pilgrimage in Japan in the 21st Century,” MacWilliams will explore Chichibu’s changing visual landscape and the ways tourism, mass media, and consumer culture are reshaping the pilgrimage experience. Traditional Buddhist imagery and sacred landscapes now exist alongside anime tourism and a proliferation of kyara (characters) designed to attract attention, visitors, and consumers.

Among these is Chichibu’s official mascot, Potekuma-kun, a bear-like character inspired by the region’s famous miso potatoes. MacWilliams will use Potekuma-kun and the broader phenomenon of Japanese character culture to examine how this “visual glut” has altered Chichibu’s sacred geography and marginalized the Buddhist icons that once dominated its visual landscape.

MacWilliams is a longtime St. Lawrence University professor of East Asian religions whose scholarship focuses on Japanese pilgrimage and visual culture, including manga and anime. He is the author and editor of Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime and is currently completing work on Buddhist comics and anime as well as his forthcoming book, Graphically Religious.