Outer Shrine dedicated to a god of food. During the
medieval period, these sanctuaries became the object
of complex associations with esoteric Buddhism,
which viewed them as yet another manifestation of the
Adamantine and Matrix mandalas. Ise subsequently
became the object of mass pilgrimages, and for several
centuries pilgrims were escorted by professional reli-
gious guides (onshi,or oshi), who gave instructions
concerning the varied features of these sites of cult’s
sacred features, ranging from trees, rivers, and water-
falls, to caves, monasteries, and shrines. In the early
modern period, however, Buddhism became the ob-
ject of critiques that led, ultimately, to the separation
of theretofore unified Shinto-Buddhist cults through-
out Japan. The thirty-seven Buddhist monasteries of
Ise were destroyed at the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and today Ise is regarded as a Shintocultic site,
with no trace of Buddhism whatsoever.
It is important, therefore, to stress that the term sa-
cred spaceis sometimes misleading because its oft-
found emphasis on spirituality tends to generate an
avoidance of the universally present material features
of its historical production, as well as an avoidance of
the many conflicts it caused or witnessed in the course
of history. That is, the sacredness of certain sites or re-
gions was instituted or maintained through various
forms of an occupation of land (one of which was con-
trol over the people who lived there), and this socio-
historical fact suggests that studies of the term sacred
spaceneed to include historical, social, and economic
aspects. Japan’s (and other countries’) shrines and
monasteries were established on pieces of land that
used to belong to an individual or the government.
Measured on the basis of a technique called, in Japan-
ese, shiichi(four corners), the area where they were to
be erected was ritually cleansed and propitiated, and
the individual or ruling entity that entrusted that area
to religious authorities thereby gave up all and any con-
trol over it, especially taxes. In order to meet the
monasteries’ needs for regular maintenance and repair,
as well as in order to enhance their visibility and pres-
tige, individuals or rulers commended land estates to
them, and cultic sites became powerful economic en-
tities. During the medieval period this estate system
eroded and fell apart, and religious authorities had to
look for different funding sources and traveled across
the land in search of financial assistance while chant-
ing the sacred character of their sites of cult and en-
couraging people to engage in pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage, then, arose in a specific social and eco-
nomic climate, and the narratives mentioned earlier
played a great part in this development. Still today, pil-
grimages have an important economic dimension that
is all too often ignored in the analysis of sacred space,
and the long but sometimes violent history of the sa-
cred sites visited by pilgrims should be critically as-
sessed in light (or shadow) of the stable myths that are
often attached to the notion of sacred space.See also: Cave Sanctuaries; Consecration; Kailas ́a
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