Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, and Tourism - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 134

increased, and the Traffi c Safety Praying Hall was established at Naritasan (Narita
City History Editorial Committee 1986b ).

4.1.2.2 Transition in Worshipers

(1) Changes to ko
Four hundred fourteen ko , were recorded in “Records of ko ” in 1805. Three
hundred twenty-two ko were established in local towns, and the Senju Post
Station had 92 ko (Narita City History Editorial Committee 1986a ). The reason
for the large number of ko between 1600 and 1860 was that expositions were
held, and the name of Naritasan was publicized by the Ichikawa Danjuro fam-
ily. The family promoted a play called “ Fudo Risho-ki .” Furthermore, in the
1600s, the distance to Shinshoji required only three nights and 4 days of travel.
The number of Narita - ko rapidly increased in the fi rst half of the nineteenth
century, with new establishments distributed in Musashi, Kai, Awa, Kazusa,
Shimousa, Hitachi, Shimotsuke, Kozuke, Izu, and Shinano from the 1840s. The
distribution of ko was quite widespread, but ko with very strong ties with
Shinshoji included the Naijin Five-ko , Naijin Sixteen-ko , and Asakusa Ten-ko .
A Naritasan branch was established in Fukagawa (Tokyo) and in Kawagoe,
where there were a number of such ko , whose representatives visited Naritasan
on behalf of ko members.
The number of Narita-ko has increased in modern times, but has declined
since the 1970s (Shinozaki 2003 ). Figure 4.3 shows Narita - ko by prefecture in
the years 1972 and 2009 based on the “list of Narita - ko and temple support
groups” and on material provided by Shinshoji. There were 2,935 Narita - ko ,
including substitute ko , in 1972. Most were in Tokyo, with 858 ko (16 were
substitute worship associations) that accounted for 29.2 % of all ko . Next was
Fukushima, with 487 ko (16.6 %, including 412 substitute worship associa-
tions); Saitama, with 367 (12.5 %, with 100 substitute worship associations);
Chiba, with 317 (10.8 %, with 50 substitute worship associations); Kanagawa,
with 163 (5.6 %, with 18 substitute worship associations); and Ibaraki, with
138 (4.7 %, with 18 substitute worship associations). 1972 and 2009 had simi-
lar distributions. There were 1,141 ko , including temple support groups. In
2009, there were 389 ko in Tokyo (27.0 %, with three substitute worship asso-
ciations and 20 temple support groups); 195 in Saitama (13.5 %, with one
temple support group); 186 in Fukushima (12.9 %, with 136 substitute wor-
ship associations and seven temple support groups); 149 in Chiba (10.3 %,
with nine substitute worship associations and 22 temple support groups); and
91 in Kanagawa (6.3 %, with one substitute worship association and two tem-
ple support groups). Ko in Kanto and Fukushima accounted for 79.4 % of the
total in 1972, and 70.1 % in 2009. This shows Narita-ko were concentrated in
the Kanto area, including Tokyo. Some ko in Tokyo moved to more rural areas
for safety during the Second World War, and were established in the areas
where the believers fl ed to. This supports the conclusion that the reason for the