Hell-bent for Heaven in Tateyama Mandara

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries priests from the Tateyama mountain area (Toyama Prefecture) brought paintings of the mountain, called Tateyama mandara, on campaigns throughout Japan that extolled its merits, drummed up warm-weather pilgrimage, and established venues for selling products and services.

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Hell-bent for Heaven in Tateyama mandara treats the history, religious practice, and visual culture that developed around the mountain Tateyama in Toyama prefecture.
Caroline Hirasawa traces the formation of institutions to worship kami and Buddhist divinities in the area, examines how two towns in the foothills fiercely fought over religious rights, and demonstrates how this contributed to the creation of paintings called Tateyama mandara.