Conclusions - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 193

(in accordance with the Chinese zodiac), the Onbashira festival is known as one of
the three most unconventional Japanese festivals.
The landscapes of sacred places are closely related to the fudo that nurtured
them; landscape can therefore be used to identify the religious sensibilities of the
Japanese people. The entrances to divine areas incorporate symbols that indicate the
borders between the sacred and secular worlds. Torii represent the “gates” to the
sacred area of a shrine. The approaches to shrines will usually have at least one or
more Torii , as well as rivers with arched bridges over them that border the sacred
area; this represents a separating and bridging of the sacred and the profane.
Chapter 3 clarifi ed regional divisions in the catchment areas of Japanese
Shintoism by analyzing the distribution of certain kinds of believers. I discussed
two case studies—the Kasama Inari Shrine (Sect. 3.1 ) and the Kanamura Shrine
(Sect. 3.2 ) .
According to my analysis, the catchment area of the Kasama Shrine consists of
three areas. The characteristic of the fi rst area (0-50 km zone) is the distribution of
donors of agricultural products. No other indexes were found in this area. The dis-
tributional character of this fi rst area could be recognized in other mountainous
religions in Japan. The second area (50-150 km zone) has a denser distribution of
all the indexes than the other two areas. The 50-70 km zone in particular has a high
average for each index. The over-100 km zone has no donors, while it is character-
ized by a dense distribution of fraternities of dogyo nakama (accompanying peer
type) and branch shrines of Kasama Inari. In the third area (150-800 km zone),
which is the periphery of the catchment area of this shrine, there are few worship-
pers and no donors. The main distribution of this area is branch shrines. In the over-
200 km zone, there are few distributions in all indexes. The most remote believers
are in the Hokkaido and Ehime prefectures. The catchment area of the Kasama
Shrine spreads over an 800 km zone.
In Sect. 3.2 , I clarify the regional differences in the modes of people's beliefs in
the Kanamura Shrine between the outer and inner zones of its catchment area. In the
Toyosato district—a typical district of the inner area—the Kanamura religious asso-
ciations ( ko ) do not function as autonomous religious groups. They are dependent
on other religious or administrative organizations. While the majority of individual
believers used to wish for the safety of soldiers before the war, they now wish for
the safety of their families. People in this area worshipped the Kanamura Shrine as
not only an effi cacious deity, but also as a tutelary shrine. One of the factors causing
people to regard the Kanamura Shrine as their tutelary deity is the close connection
between the local community and the shrine through the distribution of amulets and
ceremonies in addition to people's visits to the shrine. In the Yoshikawa district—a
typical district of the outer area—there are few individual believers, but the
Kanamura associations in this district have their own managers and members, and
they function independently of the Ujiko, or other, religious organizations. It is clear
that people in this area worshipped the Kanamura Shrine not as the tutelary deity,
but as a removed effi cacious deity.
Chapter 4 discussed some modern aspects of sacred places and tourism through
two case studies. Section 4.1 focused on changes in the types of businesses at the