The impacts of and on landscapes linking sacred and significant sites
This year, the Nara to Norwich team has undertaken a new research strand exploring pilgrimage. Under the title of ‘Pilgrimage and the Anthropocene’, this project will investigate the archaeology of religious experience through the lens of pilgrimage by taking a phenomenological and internationally comparative approach. Walking the pilgrimage routes embeds our research within the lived landscape while also reciprocally informing and shaping it, creating a relationship where place and practice co-produce new forms of understanding. Alongside this, the project will also explore the experience of pilgrimage for those who walked the routes and its social, physical, mental, and spiritual effects.
We have selected two case studies for this research, one in Japan and one in the UK. The UK pilgrimage will look at the route between Norwich and Little Walsingham, once the second most visited shrine in England, while the route in Japan connects Hase Temple in Nara (the focus of our May 2024 exhibition) to Ise Grand Shrine, the most venerated Shinto shrine in Japan. Alongside research and a proposed publication, this will culminate in two events where scholars and the member of the public will be invited to walk the routes themselves, with talks and lectures along the route while also inviting attendees to reflect on their own experience of walking these paths.
To find out more about the project, visit our Pilgrimage page or read our project brochure.
The project so far
The team have been researching the routes to understand the broad context of pilgrimage in the past, through the archaeology and history but also considering the relationship between pilgrimage and landscape, ecology, land ownership, infrastructure, commerce, and the social and cultural fabric of the time. Building on this, the core team conducted an initial survey of the Norwich to Little Walsingham route in June 2025. Physically walking the route allowed us to both make logistical plans and considerations for the main walk, while also placing our research within the landscape of the pilgrimage. Our Flickr Gallery shows some of the places and spaces we visited.
St Andrew Church, Little Snoring, on the final day of the UK route walk in June 2025.
Next steps
Project members Professor Simon Kaner, Professor Susan Whitfield and Olivia Butler will be travelling to Japan in October 2025 to conduct a similar survey of the route in Japan, generously supported by the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee. The team will undertake research around the sites at either end of the pilgrimage, as well as physically walking the route that connects the them. While the UK pilgrimage took around three days to complete, the route in Japan is considerably longer (and steeper) and will take around a week to walk. We will be documenting our experiences each day, so head to our project Instagram page (@nara2norwich) to follow us on the journey.
Our main UK walk is planned for June 2026, and we will be releasing further details about this in the near future for those who may want to get involved. We hope to undertake the walk in Japan in Autumn 2027. We will also be hosting research workshops with experts on pilgrimage and associated fields to invite discussions about the routes, approach and research behind this.
We intend to create a publication relating to the project to document our findings, and are hoping to develop a multi-layered, interactive map resource that would allow future walkers to engage with the complex spatial, cultural, and sensory dimensions of pilgrimage.
We welcome any feedback or comments as the project progresses – you can contact us at n2n@sainsbury-institute.org. We are also grateful to Hase Temple (Nara), Norwich Cathedral, and other organisations for their help with the project so far.
Olivia Butler, October 2025