Transfer, Costewardship, and Repatriation Proposal: Inari Shrine (SK 2006.2064.INV)
April 2023
Erin Lennon ‘23, Camden Breckenridge ‘24, and Lilli Nilsson ‘24
This proposal seeks to provide a path towards cultural reintegration for the Inari Shrine currently residing in Mount Holyoke’s Skinner Museum.
Figure 1. Inari Shrine Model, Joseph Allen Skinner Museum, Mount Holyoke College (MH SK 2006.2064.INV)
Provenance and Background
The Inari shrine (SK 2006.2064.INV) is currently among the over 7,000 objects that make up the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum’s collection. In the Museum’s records, this shrine is identified as a “model,” though our investigation has informed us that this object is not a model, but is itself a shrine. Consultation with Emily Anderson of the Japanese American National Museum has indicated towards the identification of this object of religious worship as a hokora, or roadside shrine.
The path that this shrine charts is distinct from many of the museum’s objects in that its current residence in the Skinner museum is not a result of the collecting done by Joseph Allen Skinner himself. Rather, the shrine came to Mount Holyoke by way of the Quaker missionary Herbert Victor Nicholson (1892-1983) who donated the shrine to Mary Inda Hussey (1876-1952)–a professor of religion at Mount Holyoke–in December of 1935.
In the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly of August, 1938, Professor Hussey writes that she was gifted the shrine in December, 1935. She details the circumstances of the shrine as she knew them, citing its displacement from Mito, Japan as a result of its residence on property purchased by The Friends’ Mission. Once in her possession, Hussey donated the shrine to the college under the impression that it would interest students as an example of religious and cultural diversity. Records indicate that the shrine was displayed in a seminar room of the Williams Library. Undated photographic records depict the shrine in the Skinner Museum’s Schoolhouse building before it was finally moved to its current location in the museum’s Church building.
There is a coalescence of concerning ethical issues regarding the shrine’s current residence. Its extraction from Japan was due to its former residence on what came to be a Missionary site, and its current state of displacement in the Skinner Museum places it as one among many objects similarly obscured from their cultural origins.
Function of the Object
The purpose of this kind of shrine is to serve as a place of worship to the god (kami) Inari. Inari is a deity associated with foxes, rice, household wellbeing, and general prosperity. Foxes are considered to be messengers of the deity, and there are often statues of them on or around these shrines, usually in pairs, such as the ones with this shrine. Inari shrines have a place in both Buddhist and Shinto practices, and there are roughly 3,000 registered shrines in Japan today.
Shrines like the one in the Skinner Museum are also often used as a place for offerings to Inari. Common offerings include rice, sake, and other foods, as well as monetary offerings. The shrine currently in the Skinner does include an offering box, the contents of which are stored separately. The contents of the box included about five Japanese currency bills and forty coins.
The shrine is said to originally have been removed from its original site in Mito, Japan by Quaker missionaries, who after acquiring the land moved the object in order to “avoid the complications that would ensue had [Herbert Nicholson] forbidden its use by the natives.” As a result, the shrine has been removed from its cultural context and is no longer used, or even interacted with, as originally intended.
Recommendations
Stage One: Transfer
We propose that the Inari shrine which is currently located in the Skinner Museum (which has been closed for several years), should be relocated to a different location on campus. We propose that the shrine should be relocated to Wa-shin-an, the traditional Japanese tea house located on the top floor of the Elliot house. As the college’s religious center, the Elliot house would be a more appropriate and respectful location for the shrine. If it cannot be housed in this location, we then move to propose that the shrine be relocated to Williston Library, where it was kept before its move to the Skinner Museum.
Justification:
It is extremely important to the culture and the respect of the shrine that the shrine be in a place where it may be visited and rightfully used as an object of worship. At its current location in the Skinner Museum, this is not possible; the shrine is currently resigned as a relic of the past rather than the piece of living culture that it is.
Note: As recommended by scholars, for the shrine to be carefully looked after and worshiped at, the shrine may have to be reactivated, or woken up by an Shinto priest, and consistently looked after on a yearly basis. Initiating care and then failing to follow through would fail to show adequate respect to the shrine as a spiritual object.
Stage Two: Costewardship
We propose that the shrine, in the future, should be relocated to a different museum or cultural center. There are several Japanese museums in California that would be better suited to handle this shrine with the proper respect and care. We have been in contact with the Shinto Shrine of Shusse Inari in America, who have been looking for a donation of a shrine and are interested in pursuing the path of donation of Mount Holyoke’s shrine.
Justification:
Mount Holyoke is not the right place for this shrine. It was brought to this campus unethically and deserves to be treated with the respect and honor it deserves. A Japanese American museum or Shinto group would be able to provide this.
Stage Three: Repatriation
We propose that the Inari shrine be legally and physically repatriated to the community in Mito Japan from which it was taken.
Justification: This shrine was confiscated from the grounds of the Quaker meeting house in Mito to discourage its worship, and unceremoniously donated to a Mount Holyoke religion professor who brought it to this campus and used it as a teaching aid.
Whether taken in an effort to protect it during state persecution, or as an object of cultural imperialism, the shrine was removed from its community, and should therefore be returned to its rightful home.
We hope that this proposal can serve as a guide in the next steps for more respectful treatment, honoring and care for the Inari shrine, and hopefully in future, the shrine will be able return to its rightful home.
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Resources:
Auslander, Mark. “The Inari Shrine of Mount Holyoke’s Skinner Museum: Initial Considerations.” Mark Auslander, February 10, 2023. https://markauslander.com/2022/11/06/the-inari-shrine-of-mount-holyokes-skinner-museum-initial-considerations/.
“Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium.” Collections Database. Accessed April 30, 2023. https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?museum=mhsk&t=objects&type=all&f=&s=inari&record=3.
Nicholson, Herbert V., and Margaret Wilke. Comfort All Who Mourn: The Life Story of Herbert and Madeline Nicholson. Fresno, CA: Bookmates International, 1982.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr. Aaron Miller of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, for his kind help and generosity.
Thank you to Dr. Emily Anderson of the Japanese American National Museum and Dr. Ellen Schattschneider of Brandeis, for meeting with our class and providing invaluable cultural and historical contexts.
And of course, thank you to Ren Block and Professor Auslander for their guidance.