Shugendō

Buddhist institutions and lineages

Shugendō developed in the medieval period through networks of Shingon and Tendai acharyas, lay practitioners, and mountain communities. By the medieval and early modern periods, several important centers had developed distinct lineages.

Shōgoin of the Honzan Shugen-shū sect, located in Kyoto, became an important institutional center of Shugendō, and during the Shugendō Hatto was designated as the principal center of the Tendai-aligned Honzan-ha tradition. Its authority was solidified through networks of ordained and lay pilgrimage groups throughout Japan.

Kinpusen-ji of the Kinpusen Shugen Honshū sect is one of the major institutions centered on the Mount Ōmine-based tradition. Due to events throughout the history of Shugendō, it has had associations with Shingon- and Tendai-based institutions at separate times, but became independent with the religious freedoms act in 1948.

Sanbō-in is a sub-temple of Daigo-ji, the head temple of the Daigo-ha Shingon Sect. During the Shugendō Hatto, Sanbō-in was designated as the principal center of the Shingon-aligned Tōzan-ha tradition. Centered on the Mount Ōmine-based tradition, it is a dual center of Shingon and Shugendō faith and practice.

Gokuraku-ji of the Ishizuchisan Shingon sect is a tradition centered on Mt. Ishizuchi and the study of Shingon Buddhism and Shugendō. After enduring the various government orders which brought them under various institutions, in 1954, with the religious freedoms act, they could return to being an independent institution.

Mount Hiko in northern Kyushu is a decentralized spiritual center of Shugendō, not originally aligned with any particular Buddhist lineage, nor subordinate to the Honzan or Tōzan traditions. During the Edo period, it had substantial networks of lay supporters and pilgrimage associations. Institutional education is done according to many different streams at different temples and shrines in the area.

Zaō Gongen

Gongen (権現) refers to a manifestation appearing in the form of a local deity, in some cases as Buddhist figures, and in others as Japanese kami. The medieval Japanese doctrine known as Honji Suijaku explained that Buddhist deities could take various appearances in order to guide people according to specific circumstances. Gongen worship thus became an important faculty for the religious interaction between Buddhist and Shinto institutions and local indigenous religious traditions. This allowed for sacred geographical sites such as mountains, springs, and caves to be associated with Buddhist deities as temporal expressions. There are numerous Gongen throughout Japan, with Zaō Gongen (蔵王権現) being one of the most prominent and unique to Shugendō.

Kongō Zaō Gongen (金剛蔵王権現)

The most widely familiar appearance of Zaō Gongen is centered around the Mount Ōmine and Mount Kinpusen range. This appearance is believed to have appeared to En no Gyōja after an extended period of ascetic practice at the summit of Mount Sanjō while praying for a Buddha capable of saving beings in a troubled age of violent and obstinate beings. In response to his prayers, it is said that Shakyamuni, Avalokitesvara, and Maitreya successively appeared before him. En no Gyōja, however, believed their gentle forms to be insufficient and so continued his austerities till, as temple records describe, the mountain shook and a great rock split open to reveal the figure of Kongō Zaō Dai-Gongen.

Ishizuchi Kongō Zaō Dai-Gongen (石鎚金剛蔵王大権現)

According to traditions preserved at Mount Ishizuchi, En no Gyōja performed ascetic practice in the range around the year 680 AD, praying for the salvation of all beings who were obstructed by the three poisons and to transform this land into a pure land to aid them. During these prayers, Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara, and Mahāsthāmaprāpta appeared to him. He was unsatisfied, however, by their offer of personal salvation in Sukhavati and by their gentle, unsuitable appearances, and so the three deities transformed into the figures of Ishizuchi Kongō Zaō Dai-Gongen. Tradition records also state that Kūkai, when practicing austerities at Mount Hoshigamori in the early ninth century, beheld Ishizuchi Dai-Gongen and received teachings from him.

Zaō Gongen of Mount Mitoku (三徳山蔵王権現)

According to the tradition of Mount Mitoku's Sanbutsu-ji, En no Gyōja arrived at the mountain in 706 and established it as a place of ascetic practice after he had seen a lotus petal fall from the sky there. It is said that he enshrined Zaō Gongen in the mountain when he built a small temple at the foot of the mountain, shrank it to the size of his hand, and tossed it into the recesses of the cliffside, where it resides and is referred to as the Nageire-dō.

Practices

Miyake Hitoshi describes the main worldview and practice as follows:

Shugendō practice is centered on mountain asceticism and ritual engagement with the sacred and supernatural. In Shugendō thought, mountains are understood as sacred realms inhabited by deities and as places where the ordinary and spiritual realms intersect. Mountain practice, pilgrimage, and rituals are consequently understood not merely as physical austerities but as means of engaging with this sacred realm.

The tantric Buddhist deities Dainichi Nyorai (大日如来, Mahāvairocana) and Fudō Myōō (不動明王, Acalanatha Vidyaraja) play a central role in Shugendō practice. However, Shugendō ritualists also practice different rituals, prayers, and ceremonies associated with particular deities, including the buddhas Yakushi and Amida; the bodhisattvas Monju, Kokūzō, and Kannon; as well as Indian deities like Benzai-ten and Daikoku-ten; and Japanese kami like Inari.

Mountain practice

The most common Shugendō practices are "practices in the mountains" (入峰修行, nyūbu shugyō). In Shugendō, sacred mountains are seen as a supernatural home of numerous deities and as a symbol of the entire universe. According to Miyake, "the central element which forms both of these rituals is the symbolic action exhibited in a state of identification with the central deity Fudō Myōō."

Some forms of mountain practice according to Miyake Hitoshi are:

• Entering the mountain to hold ceremonies, make offerings, read or bury sutras, and so forth, in honor of various buddhas or other deities in the mountain seen as a mandala.
• Entering the mountain for periods of retreat, in which shugenja do various ascetic practices and receive esoteric knowledge and initiations.
• The most advanced nyūbu is the wintertime retreat in the mountains said to confer special Siddhis.

Ritual practice

Shugendō has a wide variety of initiations that are unique to the Shugendō tradition but are based on Esoteric Buddhist abhiseka, as well as practices like fire ceremonies for averting misfortunes (sokusai goma), usually focused around Fudō Myōō. There was, and still is, often tension between various Shugendō institutions over a lack of centralized standards, term usage, and implications, with terms like kanjō and sendatsu being prime examples. In some traditions, these terms carry the implication of someone who has undergone extensive religious study and been given esoteric training transmission, while in some lay traditions they mean someone who has made a certain number of ascents and been given certification as a mountain guide.

Lay, confraternity, and institutional practice

The scope of practice is often dependent on the degree of formalization one engages in. It can range from lay participation, pilgrimage confraternities (kō 講, kai 会), and the training of initiated shugenja priests in an institution (shu 宗, ha 派). While all are Shugendō, mountain asceticism is performed, and the attire is identical, the expected degree or variety of training is different.

Lay individuals may participate in pilgrimages, devotional practices, prayers, and other observances. Other lay individuals may participate through pilgrimage confraternities under the guidance of a lay leader or Buddhist priest from a Shugendō-related or non-Shugendō-related Buddhist or Shinto sect.

Fully institutionalized practice is undertaken by ordained priests who have completed the prescribed training and transmissions of a recognized lineage, in some traditions called ichiryū denjū (一流伝授), a lengthy transmission of the entire lineage system. This form of Shugendō combines mountain asceticism with esoteric Buddhist ritual, particularly from the Shingon and Tendai traditions. Shugendō thus, under one term, can encompass a spectrum from lay, through confraternity, to institutional priesthood.

Minor skills or practices

Other minor practices which are part of Shugendō include the following:

• fortunetelling and divination (bokusen)
• Shugendō practitioners also take part in Shinto festivals (matsuri, 祭) and make offerings to kami.
• obtaining oracles through mediums that have been possessed by a deity (yori kitō, 憑祈禱)
• using incantations (kaji) for a specific purpose
• spells and charms (fuju, majinai), used for healing, childbirth, protection, and so on
• exorcism (tsukimono otoshi) for healing purposes

Sacred sites

The following are notable geographical sites associated with Shugendō.

• Mount Ōmine 大峰山 is a major non denominational pilgrimage site for practitioners across the nation and one of Japan's Seven Holy Mountains. Ominesan-ji Temple 大峰山寺 is located near the peak and managed by both the Shingon and Tendai based traditions at different times annually. Known to be the site where Omine Kongō Zaō Gongen 金剛蔵王権現 appeared before En no Gyoja.
• Mount Kinpusen 金峯山 is a mountain that historically has been a place of cultivation where at different times Shingon and Tendai institutions of Shugendo thrived. In history it served as one of the main cultivation sites of the Shingon master Rigen Daishi.
• Ishizuchisan 石鎚山, one of Japan's Seven Holy Mountains, consists of three primary mountains Tengu dake 天狗岳, Kamegamori 瓶ヶ森, and Ryuosan 龍王山. It is also a site of Tengu faith with the veneration of Hōki-bō Daitengu 法起坊大天狗.
• Mount Kongō 金剛山 is known as a sacred site in the Katsuragi network of Shugendō practitioners. Centered around the temple is Tenporin-ji 転法輪寺. The mountain is associated with the faith of the deity Hōki Daibosatsu 法起大菩薩.
• Tateyama 立山, one of Japan's Seven Holy Mountains, was affiliated with the Shogoin tradition of Shugendo. Since the Shinto Buddhist Separation order there has been a sharp decline in institutional practice in the region.
• Mount Haku is one of Japan's Seven Holy Mountains, including Gozenpō 御前峰, Ōnanjimine 大汝峰, Bessan 別山, Kengamine 剣ヶ峰, Ōkurayama 大倉山, and Sannomine 三ノ峰 peaks.
• Sanyama-sama 三山様: the three mountains of Dewa Sanzan 出羽三山. Historically centered around the Hagurosan Kōtakuji Shōzenin 羽黒山荒沢寺正善院. There is also a prominent Shinto yamabushi tradition in the area.
• Mount Minō 箕面山 in Minō, Osaka Prefecture is a mountain tied to the history of En no Gyoja's early cultivation.
• Mount Ikoma, located on the border of Osaka and Nara prefectures, is centered around Hozanji and the Hozanji Shingon Sect. The founder of the temple, the Shingon master Tankai, propagated a belief in the combined practice of Shingon, Shugendo, and the Vinaya.
• Mount Mitoku Sanbutsu-ji in Tottori Prefecture.

General and cited references

• Carter, Caleb Swift (2022). A Path into the Mountains: Shugendō and Mount Togakushi. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv2rb76h6. ISBN 978-0-8248-9013-1. JSTOR j.ctv2rb76h6.
• Castiglioni, Andrea; Rambelli, Fabio; Roth, Carina, eds. (2020). Defining Shugendō: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-17939-4.
• Faure, Bernard; Moerman, Max; Sekimori, Gaynor (2011). Shugendō: The History and Culture of a Japanese Religion. Kyoto: Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, centre de Kyoto. ISBN 9782855391236.
• Gill, Andrea K. (2012). "Shugendō: Pilgrimage and Ritual in a Japanese Folk Religion". Pursuit - the Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee. 3 (2): 49–65. doi:10.7290/pur32otzk. ISSN 2330-4715. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
• Grapard, Allan G. (2016). Mountain Mandalas: Shugendō in Kyushu. Bloomsbury Shinto Studies. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-4900-3.
• Hitoshi, Miyake; Sekimori, Gaynor (2005). The Mandala of the Mountain: Shugendō and Folk Religion (1st ed.). Tokyo: Keio University Press. ISBN 9784766411287.
• Miyake, Hitoshi (1989). "Religious Rituals in Shugendo: A Summary". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 16 (2/3): 101–116. doi:10.18874/jjrs.16.2-3.1989.101-116. JSTOR 30234003.