Spiritual Legitimacy in Contemporary Japan: A Case Study of the Power Spot Phenomenon and the Haruna Shrine, Gunma

Shin Yasuda

doi:10.3390/rel12030177

Abstract

Since the 2000s, Japanese internet media as well as mass media, including magazines, television and newspapers, have promoted the concept of a “power spot” as part of the spirituality movement in the country. This emerging social environment for the power spot phenomenon has developed a new form of religiosity, which can be called “spiritual legitimacy,” according to the transformation of religious legitimacy embedded in Japanese society. This paper, therefore, examined the emergence of a new form of spiritual legitimacy utilizing a case study of the power spot phenomenon in the Haruna Shrine, Gunma Prefecture, in Japan. The development of the power spot phenomenon in the Haruna Shrine indicates that consumption of spiritual narratives has strongly promoted the construction of a social context of spiritual legitimacy, such as through shared images and symbols related to the narratives in the sacred site. As a result, this paper clarifies that this new form of spiritual legitimacy embodies stakeholders’ social consensus on spiritual narratives, which people have struggled to construct a social context for spiritual legitimacy to ensure hot authentication of their individual narratives and experiences.

Highlights

Since the 2000s, Japanese internet media, such as webpages, blogs, social networking services (SNS) and mass media, such as magazines, television and newspapers, have promoted the concept of a “power spot” or a “spiritual spot”—a place believed to enhance one’s spiritual fulfilment and wellness, and offers healing, health, and good fortune (Horie 2009, 2017; Suga 2010; Uchikawa 2017; Kato and Pregano 2017; Carter 2018)
The development of the power spot phenomenon in Japan is frequently described as a part of the so-called “spirituality movement” in Japan, which coincides with the decline of traditional institutional religions in contemporary Japanese society, and the rise of individualized way of piety and religiosity (Shimazono 1999; Horie 2009, 2017; Okamoto 2015, 2020; Kato and Pregano 2017; Yamanaka 2016, 2017, 2020; Yamaguchi 2017), as many Japanese describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” or “spiritual but not affiliated” (Mercandante 2014; Yamanaka 2020, p. 11)
This study examined the emergence of a new form of spiritual legitimacy utilizing a case study of the power spot phenomenon and the Haruna Shrine in Japan and explained how the spiritual narratives related to the power spot phenomenon are consumed among stakeholders to define a new form of spiritual legitimacy in the field

Summary

Introduction

Since the 2000s, Japanese internet media, such as webpages, blogs, social networking services (SNS) and mass media, such as magazines, television and newspapers, have promoted the concept of a “power spot” or a “spiritual spot”—a place believed to enhance one’s spiritual fulfilment and wellness, and offers healing, health, and good fortune (Horie 2009, 2017; Suga 2010; Uchikawa 2017; Kato and Pregano 2017; Carter 2018). Some researchers have advocated the idea that pilgrimage and sacred places are typical examples of places that reflect the contested authority and legitimacy of institutionalized religions based on traditional doctrines and hierarchies (Okamoto 2015; Horie 2017; Carter 2018; Tillonen 2021). In this sense, pilgrimages and sacred spaces in contemporary society have dramatically declined to some extent, owing to the controversy of religious narratives in the phenomenon. The paper discusses the characteristics of power spot phenomenon, constructed social environments and emerging social contexts in the Haruna Shrine

Materials and Methods

Power Spot Phenomenon and Spirituality Movement in Japan

Conclusions