ARUKIHENRO

Walking Pilgrims

Documentary film / 2006

73 min. / Language: Japanese with English Subtitles

FILMFESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS

∙ Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris / France 2007

∙ Worldfilm Festival of Visual Culture, Tartu / Estonia 2007

∙ NAFA Nordic Anthropological Film Association Festival, Trondheim /

Norway 2007

∙ RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Manchester / UK 2007

∙ Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich / Germany 2007

∙ Parnu International Documentary Film Festival, Parnu / Estonia 2007

∙ Regard Bleu Filmfestival, Zurich University / Switzerland 2007

∙ Mostra International do Filme Etnografico, Rio de Janeiro / Brazil 2007

∙ International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade / Serbia 2007

∙ Vidovin Festival of Ethnographic and Documentary Film, Tolmin /

Slovenia 2007

∙ Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften, Vienna University / Austria 2007

∙ Scientific Film Festival, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka / Japan 2008

∙ Days of Ethnographic Film, Ljubljana / Slovenia 2008

∙ Etnofilm Cadca 2008, Cadca / Slovakia 2008

∙ Religion Today - International Festival of Cinema & Religion, Trento /

Italy 2008

∙ Schweizerisch-Japanische Gesellschaft, Zürich / Switzerland 2008

∙ Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Chicago / USA 2009

∙ ICOSS, University of Sheffield / UK 2009

∙ Kyoto University, Kyoto / Japan 2009

∙ T.H.I.S. Buddhist Filmfestival, Singapore 2009

∙ Aleksandar-Sasa Petrovic Film Festival, Banja Koviljaca / Serbia 2009

∙ Days of Ethnographic Cinema, Moscow / Russia 2009

∙ Musée Guimet, Paris / France 2011

T

SYNOPSIS

For over a thousand years, the Shikoku Henro pilgrimage has connected 88 sacred places along a circular route of 875 miles around Shikoku, Japan’s fourth largest island.

Shot over a period of nine months and based on ethnographic survey methods, this film reveals in an intimate manner, the motives, aims and desires of modern Japanese people as they follow this Buddhist pilgrimage.

The filmmakers themselves walked the entire route, accompanying various different pilgrims through long stages of their journeys.

Not only are the experiences of the pilgrims themselves documented, but also impressions and observations of Shikoku residents, priests and academic experts.

Presenting the pilgrimage as a microcosm, ARUKIHENRO offers profound insights into the religious and socio-cultural background of modern Japanese society whilst at the same time pointing to the universal human quest for self-knowledge.

TRAILER

TEAM

Tommi Mendel

director, research, camera, sound, editing

Atsuko Toda

interviews, translations