The Journey

This screen represents a pilgrimage site in Miyazu Bay on the coast of the Japan Sea northwest of Kyoto. On the left is the Zen temple Chionji, where worshippers pay tribute to Monju, the Japanese form of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. On the right is a long sandbar, called Amanohashidate (literally, "Standing Bridge to Heaven"), where the Shinto spirit Hashidate Myojin of Amanohashi-date is enshrined. By the fourteenth century, if not earlier, Chionji was perceived as the "heaven" end of Amanohashidate. Nestled in the trees in the upper right corner of this screen is Nariaiji, a mountaintop Tendai-sect temple that is part of a pilgrimage route in western Japan.