“Tokyo Stay” is a project that seeks to unearth the narratives living in Tokyo through the experience of the “stay.” We, the project members, plan and present lectures on research perspectives and methods, inviting fascinating specialists from various fields whom we are eager to hear from.　

For this third edition, “What Is a Pilgrimage?”, our invited guests are Yasuhiro Yamauchi, president of Manganight/Rainbow Bird Inc., and artist/illustrator Ai Teramoto.

Yamauchi is the director of Manganight, a project that generates communication through the intermediary of manga. He is involved in a variety of contents production, curation and planning revolving around manga.

Teramoto presents her artwork in solo exhibitions and other settings, and creates illustrations for magazines and advertisements. In recent years she has been producing artwork on the theme “Pilgrims,” the very theme of this event. She also drew the main visuals for the NPO corporation Places and Narratives.

The word “pilgrimage” doesn’t refer just to a specific religious practice. The meaning of “pilgrimage” can be taken in a broad sense to include, for example, anime fans visiting the area that serves as the setting of their favorite anime, as well as the o-henro pilgrimage through Shikoku. It is also a key word in the activities of both of our invited guests.

Yamauchi makes manga an intermediary in communication; and the format of the “pilgrimage” undertaken in order to reach a certain goal can be seen in the narratives of such manga as Dragon Ball (early period) or One Piece. The narrative is found not in the goal itself, but in the process by which the goal is reached.

Teramoto says that in creating artwork on the theme of the pilgrimage, she draws inspiration from traveling to different areas and thinking about the people, native cultures and ways of life in each place.

Why can the locality-specific, time-based activity called the “pilgrimage” be exchanged for a manga or a picture? The Places and Narratives members making their pilgrimage through Tokyo will take the questioner’s role and consider this matter along with the speakers.