[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-141320-105":59,"doc-detail-141320-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","anime-pilgrimage-and-ema-picture-tablets-the-case-of-oarai-isosaki-shrine","Anime Pilgrimage and Ema (Picture Tablets) - the Case of Oarai Isosaki Shrine","","The paper examines anime pilgrimage (seichi junrei) through a religious lens, challenging tourism-studies interpretations that treat it as secular. It reviews prior scholarship, then analyzes how Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples become visit sites for anime fans and how the ema picture tablets are interpreted. The central case is Oarai Isosaki Shrine, focusing on ema dedicated by anime pilgrims. The study concludes the shrine’s religious significance is tied to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and its role as a World War II memorial for the cruiser Naka.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/anime-pilgrimage-and-ema-picture-tablets-the-case-of-oarai-isosaki-shrine/141320/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/anime-pilgrimage-and-ema-picture-tablets-the-case-of-oarai-isosaki-shrine/141320.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Riley","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-06","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main focus of the paper’s argument about anime pilgrimage?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper focuses on the religious aspects of anime pilgrimage rather than treating it as secular tourism.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What is ema, and how does the paper connect ema to anime pilgrims?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Ema are wooden picture tablets where visitors write wishes or prayers, and the paper examines how anime pilgrims dedicate them at religious sites.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does Oarai Isosaki Shrine have religious significance for anime pilgrims?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The paper links this significance to the shrine’s involvement with the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and its function as a war memorial for lives lost when the cruiser Naka was sunk in 1944.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},141320,1787653733,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":41},1374391975076,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000253ca4ec9f6853?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1783305029341752051","Anime Pilgrimage and Ema (Picture Tablets): the Case of Oarai Isosaki Shrine  \nYOSHITANI Hiroya  \nKeywords：Anime Pilgrimage, Ema, Oarai Isosaki Shrine, the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011,  \nCruiser Naka  \nSummary  \nThis paper is based on a recent lecture I gave in English entitled “Japanese Pop Culture”, presented on May 17, 2016 at Komatsu College, for visiting students from the PSU (Prince of Songkla University) in Thailand. Komatsu College has entered into a cooperative agreement with PSU for student exchange. Although I have already written a few articles about the Anime pilgrimage to Oarai Isosaki Shrine in Ibaraki Prefecture, which forms the main case study, this paper is based on a talk designed primarily to enlighten the foreign students, and included some new data and considerations, slightly different from my previous papers in Japanese. Therefore I decided the thesis based upon that presentation had sufficient originality and significance to merit a new paper.  \nTo begin with, this paper surveys previous studies around Anime pilgrimage and points out how some commentators within the field of tourism studies regard this phenomenon as secular tourism. Contrary to these views, this paper focuses on the religious-related side of Anime pilgrimage, mainly in a number of cases where certain Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples have become sites visited by Anime pilgrims, and the general interpretation of the ema that the pilgrims dedicate at the sites. Next, this paper examines the case of pilgrimage to Oarai Isosaki Shrine, focusing on the ema dedicated by Anime pilgrims. As a result of the above analysis, this paper concludes that the reasons for the religious implication of the Anime pilgrimage to this shrine are as follows: Firstly, Oarai Isosaki Shrine was affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011; and secondly, this shrine serves as a war memorial to commemorate the more than 200 lives lost when the Battle Cruiser Naka was sunk in the Southern Pacific Ocean in 1944.  \n※ Komatsu College, Professor, Department of Creative Community, Accepted 19 July 2016  \n1 . Introduction; the aim of this paper  \nThis paper treats Anime (aka Japanimation) as an example of Japanese pop culture. The reason I have come to refer to Japanese pop culture stems from my recent lecture entitled “Japanese Pop Culture” in English, presented on May 17, 2016 at Komatsu College, for a group of exchange students from PSU (Prince of Songkla University), Thailand. This paper is mainly based on that lecture, so it will tend to be more educational in its tone.  \nAs for the topic of Anime, there have been many studies and arguments; some examples are as follows:  \nResearch on the creators or the process of creation(1)  \nThe sociological approach to Otaku culture  \nAnalysis of the works from a literary perspective, and so on. I do not find the studies on the latter two viewpoints in the English-speaking world.  \nContrary to the above viewpoints, this paper focuses on the topic of Anime pilgrimage, or seichi junrei in Japanese. It is said that the model locations where famous Anime are set have come to be referred to asseichi (sacred places) by diehard fans, since around the year 2002. According to a generally accepted theory, it was the fans of Onegai-teacher! (Please Teacher!, broadcast in 2002) who first started to use the term seichi to describe Lake Kizaki in Nagano prefecture, which is said to be the backdrop to the main story, and they started travelling there in the name of junrei (pilgrimage) .  \nAs a result, scholars of tourism, which is the pioneering viewpoint of studies on Anime pilgrimage, considered that seichi had no implication of a religious nature. This is clear because the above example is a lake, and other examples include a school (eg. Nishinomiya Kita High School) and a dwelling (e.g. NAGATO Yuki’s condominium), in The Melancholy of SUZUMIYA Haruhi (aired in 2006 & 2009), and so on.  \nHowever, I do not subscribe to that","cbCaieSmuaervXrB","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieSmuaervXrB","pdf",951860,12,"English","# Summary\n# 1. Introduction; the aim of this paper\n## Anime pilgrimage and pop culture framing\n## Previous research and the limits of secular interpretations\n## Case comparisons: Hanasaku-iroha seichi\n# 2. On the relation between ema and Anime pilgrimage\n## 2.1 Some interpretations of ema","[{\"question\":\"What is the main focus of the paper’s argument about anime pilgrimage?\",\"answer\":\"The paper focuses on the religious aspects of anime pilgrimage rather than treating it as secular tourism.\"},{\"question\":\"What is ema, and how does the paper connect ema to anime pilgrims?\",\"answer\":\"Ema are wooden picture tablets where visitors write wishes or prayers, and the paper examines how anime pilgrims dedicate them at religious sites.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does Oarai Isosaki Shrine have religious significance for anime pilgrims?\",\"answer\":\"The paper links this significance to the shrine’s involvement with the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and its function as a war memorial for lives lost when the cruiser Naka was sunk in 1944.\"}]","Anime Pilgrimage and Ema (Picture Tablets) - the Case of Oarai Isosaki Shrine | PDF"]