The Travels of Lady Nijo: Pilgrimage, Travel, and Tourism in 13th and 14th Century Japan by Daniel Fandino
The Confessions of Lady Nijo is a work written around 1307 by Lady Nijo, a Japanese noblewomen turned Buddhist monk. The first three sections of the work describes her time at the imperial court of Emperor Go-Fukukasa. The last two sections chronicles her travels as a Buddhist monk after being expelled from the court in 1283. Nijo’s narrative provides a rare glimpse into pilgrimage, travel, and early tourism in Japan during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The project explores Nijo’s life on the roads of Japan by tracing her travels from 1289 to 1304 through Leaflet Storymaps. The project examines the relationship between Nijo’s travels and pilgrimage routes and the evolution of the road system to the Edo era under the Tokugawa shogunate. Essays explore the development of tourism, the road network, and the experience of women traveling in premodern Japan.
The following Project Highlight was originally created for the DH@MSU Undergraduate Newsletter and was featured in the April 1, 2024 issue. Subscribe to the Newsletter here.
