JapaneseJournal of Religious Studies 1989 16/24

Shugendo

ore'

GORAIShigeru

3 s ZE

Shugendo and its Lore
Most of what we know of Shugendo belongs to the realm of danshd
Ej$ , that is, "tradition" or miscellaneous lore. That is because
Shugendo was a religion of practice rather than of theory, and oneof mysteries as well-a religion of miracles and of faith. Practice (shu@ ) and miracles (gen @ ) require no theory, nor can mysteries orfaith be recorded in written documents. Shugendo acquired theory
and doctrine only after it had ceased to require dangerous, life-risking practices and had lost the spiritual power to work miracles.
All religions have to do with a return to the source. People believethat a religion's power was fully potent in the time of its founder,and so the ideal and goal of a religion is to return to its founder.
The documents and lore passed on by the founder's disciples concern, for the most part, the founder's words and deeds. Doctrine issimply a theoretical re-ordering of such material. Shugendo, however,
had no founder in the usual sense, and it needed no body of doctrine. En no Gy6ja @@$$ came to be considered the founder only
after the process of formation of doctrine, and the establishment ofsettled religious groups, had set in. The miracle-filled life of "En no
Ubasoku" in Nihon vdiki (kan 1, no. 28) simply records the legendof one particularly powerful ascetic. An entry in Shoku nihongi(Monmu 3.5.24) acknowledges the historical fact of En no Gy6ja's'

Translated from GORAI 1981, pp. 3-26. The h h d of the title is hard to translate. "Lore,"
however unscholarly it may sound, is the only word I could think of which is broad enough tocover its range as used in this article. I have adopted this translation in most instances below.

118Japanese J o u d of Re1igiou.s Studies 16/2-3

existence. Regarding his miracles, however, the entry dismisses themas legends in these words: "Popular tradition has it that Ozunu had
demonic powers at his beck and call; that he had them draw his
water and gather his firewood; and that if they failed to obey him,
he would bind them with spells."
Of course, the legend of En no Gybja does convey the Shugendo
ideal which developed later; and as practice and wonder-working
power declined, he was elevated to the status of founder. However,no record of his words or his teaching survives. Nor does anything
resembling a Shugendo scripture exist. Shugendo is a natural religion(shim shiikyd $ %%%) which has no founder at all. Part of it fusedwith Buddhism, particularly Tendai and Shingon, and so came toresemble a high-class religion (bunka shayd *ILZ$k ); but that isall. At this stage doctrinal works began to be written, but still, Shugendo never turned into a "school" (shugen-shii % ) or "sect" (shugenha @? ). It remained what it had always been, a "way" (shugen-d8
no doubt because it retained its own identity as a natural religion.
Therefore, to define the basic nature of Shugendo, one must examine
it in that spirit. And the only material for such a study is Shugendo
lore.
Not all Shugendo lore is oral. There are also important patternsof action, such as the few rituals of "entry-into-the-peak" (nyiibu girei
A@%itL)which survive here and there around Japan, or the Shugendo performing arts (geim g8E) such as rituals of worship (saishi), spell-casting (jujutsu SR ) or dance (buy6 $%% ). Oral traditions concern the use of costume or implements (wwchimno %%I);
mountain deities (yam no kumi m#J ), guardian spirits @oh8 %$2 orgaran-shin mg#J)and other supernatural entities. There is also the
jikkai shugyd +8@6 ("practice of the ten realms") which survives
at Haguro-san az!-Ll. Direct knowledge of this practice, vital forthe correct interpretation of documentary evidence, is importantenough to have attracted scholars even from overseas. There are,too, attempts to reconstruct nyiih rituals from the few documents,
illustrated handscrolls (emaki) and oral traditions which survive. Thus,
the value of such lore is coming at last to be recognized.
Shugendo, being a popular mystery religion, was hardly recordedin writing, and even oral traditions about it survive only by accident,
as it were. The mountain was a mystic, sacred realm. Once thepractitioners had left it, they faithfully kept the taboo against discussing it in the outside world. In the case of the jikkai shugyd of

s),

@?$e

GORAI:Shugendo Lore

119

Haguro, for example, one was allowed to join it only after swearingthat one would never speak of it with ou'tsiders. (Recently, of course,
researchers have been allowed to write about the practice and tophotograph it.) Thus, many rites and practices were surely kept
secret until they sank into final oblivion. The mentality of Edo-period
Shugendo encouraged this trend, and the century during which Shugendo lapsed after the Meiji Restoration did so still more. One cannot
help remembering this every time one visits a former Shugendo site.
For example, very few clues survive concerning nyiZ.0 A s ("entry
into samadhi") and ishiko-zume 65%("burying under stones"). Since
the latter appears in the Noh play Tan& Gfi , where it is described
as a "strict rule of the yamabushi," one would expect to find somewhere some record or tradition about it. However, there is nothing.
The practices of shashin e g ("abandoning the body") and h j d("fire-samsdhi," self-immolation by fire) must have been performedmuch more often than they were recorded. Only a few instances
are noted in written sources. The last example of shashzn is generally
said to be that of the Bmine yamabushi Hayashi Jitsukaga $$%%I],
who cast himself from the lip of the Nachi waterfall in 1884. However, it appears that over twenty people have done the same thing
since then, and one easily imagines that many examples of shashin
before Jitsukaga went likewise unrecorded. Again, yamabushi traditions and legends do no more than mention ishiko-zume as a punishment. No lore at all survives concerning most nyiij0-zuka("entry-into-samadhi mounds"), which are the graves of persons subjected to ishiko-zume.
To approach the nyiijd or ishiko-zume issue at all, one must therefore
gather all available clues and compare them with the configurationof the tomb of Kiikai (Kbbb Daishi
on Mt. Kbya; that of
the tomb of D6kb ZJ%ZDaishi (Kakai's disciple Jichie %% ) at
Kanshin-ji
in Kawachi; the Butsurya-ji
tomb of Kenne
Hbshi EEfk@
at Murb-Akabane g&$f@; or the tomb of Shiien@PJ at Murb-ji
itself. That is because the nyfij6-zuku of theEdo period are undoubtedly the direct descendants of these tombs.
Moreover, since Shugendo lore goes back to the religion of the mostarchaic times, one should not neglect, either, such archaeologicalremains as piled-rock grave mounds.
Thus one must gather the dispersed fragments of a tradition which
has already shifted, broken up and, so to speak, weathered away.
One must then patiently reassemble these fragments again into the

!kz

s&%

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Japanese J o u d of Religious Studies 16/2-3

whole, not rejecting the least shard of evidence. Such an effort will
eventually make it possible to describe the lost past of Shugendo.
When that time comes, it will at last be possible to read Shugendotexts which hitherto had remained obscure, and to restore to thelight of day a surprising aspect of the religious and spiritual life of
the Japanese people. This study of Shugendo will then make possible
not the superficial understanding of Japan which is achieved by themethods of cultural anthropology, but a deep grasp of the fundamental spirit of the Japanese people.
The Japanese, whose culture among all the cultures on earth issupremely baffling, are now drawing more and more attention fromthe world at large; yet to my mind, our self-understanding is still
very superficial. Sometimes we evaluate ourselves with Western eyes,
and indulge in self-satisfaction because of our economic success. What
we need, in order to deepen our understanding of our own, fundamental spiritual structure, as well as to avoid repeating the errorsof the West, is an understanding of the Japanese (nihonjin ron El
A% ) from the standpoint of Shugendo. With this project in mind,
I therefore propose the following, tentative set of headings underwhich to investigate and classify Shugendo lore.2
1. Origin lore (agidm&):
information about a sacred place
before its "opening"; the cult there; the deity and the deity's
transformations; information on lay celebrants (shisaishu ZJgZ) and"openers" (kaisbshu m@Z); origin legends of all kinds.
2. Lore about "openers" (hisasha h h ) : their yin-yang (onmybd6
EBB) or Buddhist character; En no Gyoja; the "opener" of each
mountain; deity, celebrant and "opener" (the "three deities, three
aspects," or sanshin san'yb 3 @ Z @pattern explained below); hunters); the "opener's" followers; familiar or protective spirits(Kariudo);"youths" (d6ji &=J) ; etc.
(gob
3. Wonder-workers (gmja, genza, or bza %if&
) : yamabushi lives;
the biographies in H m h d shinsa den *$fl@/lllE or H m h d b k k egenki$$flE$&Z ; Nichira El% ; Hbd6 Ez ; J6zb $$&; Nichizb
El 8 ; yamabushi powers and "contests of power" (gen-kurabe !&E);
lore about nyajb and shoshin ; lore about the Edo-period figures suchas Tansei $$3g, Enkaand others.

*

m%

'

The list as translated here is somewhat abridged. Many of these terms and names havebeen left untranslated, since "translation"would be useless without extensive annotation
which cannot be provided here. The list is meant more to stimulate further research than toprovide information.

GORAI:Shugendo Lore

121

4. Lore about sites of Shugendo practice (Shugendd gyaba 6%):'3 ("passage through the womb"); special rocks
tainai kuguri(or bydh iwa 93%),'such as nowki-iwa, gya& iwa,* bydbu no
tobi-iwa %% , tsuribune iwa $q@#, hun' no mimi
yoko-gake B R O B % ; kwari gydba &ifif&(rocks to be climbed using'3 ("the ants' passage"); ten no nzjii
chains); an' no to watari !!$%OF@
hachi shuku X O Z - V A ~("the~ twenty-eight constellations"); sai-nokuwara %'ME ; caves.
5. Mountain pilgrimages (nyiibu shugy6) : nyiibu of each of the four
seasons; rites of entering and leaving the mountain; "lodges" on themountain (buchii shuku @+ @ ) - for example, the seventy-five mbiki@ of Omine or the twenty-eight shuku @ of Katsuragi-and therites associated with them; retreats in caves (kutsu-gomri EE 9 );hmhira-matsu @@ rites; bonten-taoshi RX@jL ; oi-watashi
L ; suit6$&Ef goma rites; te-goma +sB ; flower-offering rites; jikkai shugyd;
shdanjd EBB initiation rites; nyob-ky6 $u'%@ practices; misen m j d
jdmi ; "Lotus assemblies" (renge-e) ; y a m mbutsu Lh&& .
6. Lore about physical remains at Shugendo sites (Shugendo iseki&@ dm&): ruins of temples, hermitages, residence halls, chapels
housing an "eternal flame" (fumetsu j6ku h TBRJkE ); ruins ofshrines; paths; cliffs (chigo otoshi %JE% L , nuishi otoshi
L );marker or other stones such as uba ishi
, kkkaiishi, nyoninkinzei khSt0 ishi, shibari-ishi $$ '3 6 , hotoh fL ishi, go& ishi, kaifukiiwa Jl ?k.%; nyonin-& k A 2 ; bijo sugi %*$$ ; ponds; sekibutsu
or sekitd 6% ; kujd nyiijd-zuka ; inscribed wooden tablets (of& %$L);
old maps.
7. Sacred entities of the mountains (sangaku reibutsu
I i M ):
y a m no kumi (mountain deities) ; animal manifestations of the mountain deity, such as the boar, monkey, bear, deer, horse, wolf, yam-inu,
hawk, kite, crow, dove, dragon, snake, etc.; deities' h w k u gE ("retainers"); yamauba ("mountain hagsn) or other such mountain apparitions; kuwa-waro("river sprites"); tengu %$!I ; gob.

a$%

z@

m7??%

s#J

The name By&%-iwa,found on some mountains,is simply a corruptionof Gy6cl6-iwa.For
example, the "By6d6-iwa"of Ibuki-yarna, mentioned in an inscription dated Kanbun 6 (1666)
on the back of a Kannon scupture by Enkii, is the Ibulri-yama "Gy6d6-iwa"mentioned in hiy o c h i s h i ~ uZEEWZ%.
4 .
Sites by this name exist at least on Aso and Hiio-san. Both involve a narrow hole or crack
in a rock. When someone whose sins are heavy tries to pass through the hole, it becomes asfine as a "needle'sear" (eye);whereas for one without sin,it widens to become as broad as an"elephant'sear."Elsewhere, the same sort of site is called Oshiwake-iwa ("push-throughrock")or Tainai kuguri.

122Japanese Jounzal of Religious Studies 16/2-3

8. Lore about the "other world" of the mountains (sanchii takui("hell valleyn);jigoku-h % ("hellpond"); jigoku-hura("hell plain"); jigoku-am ?? ("hell hole"); saino-kawara; uba-d6 ; Enma-& ; Jiisan-butsu f-Z(..("Thirteen Buddhas"); chi no i k h 4>>& ("blood pondn); Ketmbon-kyd dh&B; shrines
and tablets to ancestral spirits; names of areas in the mountains thatsuggest ideas of paradise and the home of the dead.
9. Lore on the Shugendo of the sea (umi no shugen dens&) : lore
on "perimeter paths" (hji 2%&mh6), such the h j i of Shikoku,
Kumano, Noto, and various islands; sacred fires; rocks and caves
which were practice sites; Fudaraku traditions (Fudaraku tokai %Pf%@% , umi no Kannon, Tokoyo R E , ryzigii Eg ; buddha-images madeof driftwood logs; shining objects on the sea and the appearance ofgods and buddhas, visitations from the morning star.
10. Folktales on mountain cult themes: tales of mountain deities,
yamauba, mi, tengu, magic animals, yamabushi.

!A &!%&m&) :jigoku-dani

Origin and "Opening" Legends("shrine and temple origin
Generally, the term shaji engi kk%@@stories") brings to mind stories associated with major temples andshrines. Actually, however, many origin tales of mountain-cult shrines
and temples were in circulation by the time the middle ages (chiisei'IPE ) began. Documents like the various Garan engi narabi ni ruki
shimi c ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ & ~ ~ of& the~ temple's~ ~ ~origins~ ~andA
register of its treasures") associated with the great Nara temples werereally no more than official reports by government-sponsored institutions. Engi written to encourage faith, and for the purposes ofpreaching, are a completely different sort of document.
There are really two kinds of engi : historical engi (rekishitekiengi) and narrative engi (monogatariteki %8@engi). Hitherto, only
the former -the official reports just mentioned - has been accorded
any value. The latter, which appeals to the religious consciousnessof the people, has been treated as little more than fantasy, and assuch has been ignored by historians. However, the reason why thenarrative engi contain so many miracle tales, or tales of h j i $3b
deities, is that such tales corresponded to popular faith, and thatmost of these engi concerned shrines and temples associated with
Shugendo mountains. Particularly numerous among them are accounts of the origins of these mountains. I have called such accounts

c

c

o

u

GORAI: Shugendo Lore123

"esoteric engi" (mikkyd @$k engi). The mandalas and deities of Esoteric Buddhism figure prominently in them, and these deities areoften assimilated to the native deities who figure in the earliest
Japanese records.
An early example of an "esoteric engi" is Shira-yam no ki L42%
(see SAKURAI1975, pp. 291-304). The work dates from Chbkan 1(1163). It relates the wonders performed by the "opener" Taichb
and the miracles which occurred at Nanatsu-ike -k 7 itb on the summit of Haku-san; and sets forth a faith centered upon mikkya, theLotus Sutra and the Daihannya-kyd A&%%%. No doubt it also functioned once as a guide for the mountain pilgrim, giving an accountof the upper, middle and main (lower) shrines, and of all the othershrines and chapels on the mountain. Another early engi is Hakonesan engi narabini jo, which bears the date Kenkyii 2 (1191). This"esoteric engi" relates the wonders performed by the mountain"openern Mangan Shbnin Z @ k A , and also lists the m u @& andbett6 BJ% (head monks) of the mountain up through the late twelfthcentury betta Gybjitsu 6% . In the late Kamakura period, it became
the basis for the purely narrative, otogi-ashi-like engi emaki known
as H u h Gongen engi (see GORAI1980).
The best example of an "esoteric engi" is that of Asama-yama enp$Jf@L4%@ ("History of Mt. Asama"), which treats the Asama nearIse (see SAKURAJ
1975, pp. 77-87). It dates from the late Kamakuraor Nanbokuchb period, and the ideas in it correspond to those in
the Ry6bu Shintbfi%$$% treatise Tenchi reiki ki X%B%$Z ("Recordof the noble spirit of heaven and earthn). The work gives a mikkyatoned account of the relationship between the Mybjb Tenshi @jEXT
or Koknzb Bosatsu @e$&g@of Asama, and Amaterasu Omikami
and Kbbb Daishi. There is also the Shozan SCLI engi ("Histories ofthe mountains"; SAKURAI
1975, pp. 89-139) now held by the Imperial
Household Agency, which gives an esoteric account of the origins, and Kasagi(Ichidaiand sacred sites of Omine, Katsuragi B%?.
). It appears to have been written in the late Kamano-mine --RSkura period. The work emphasizes the prodigies associated with En
no Gybja and relates the histories of all the shuku of Omine andKatsuragi.
The most remarkable Shugendo engi of all is Kmg6bu-ji kmcryii
shugy6 engi&Ml@%@iZ@6&@("History of the building and practice of Kongbbu-ji," that is, Kbya-san). This work was once considereda sort of biography of Kbbb Daishi, although having been written

124

Japamse Journul of Religious Studies I6/2-3

130 years after Kbbb Daishi's death, it was held to be less reliable
than earlier biographies. The work is rich in accounts of wonders
and miracles, and in particular records a belief in Kbbb Daishi's
nyfijo ("entry into samadhi"), as distinguished from nyiimtsu h% (the"death" of a monk), which is the term used in the earlier biographies.
This belief holds that Kbbb Daishi did not die, but instead entered
eternal samadhi. Such a belief is characteristic of mountain religion.
It is in this account of the founding of Kbya-san that one firstencounters hunters and mountain people (sanmin mf% , sanjin Cllh).
I therefore hold that this engi is fundamentally different from theearlier biographies written by Shingon monks in Kyoto; and that it
is in fact an account of the origins of the Shugendo of Kbya-san,written by the sanmin (the gymin fiA or "practitioner monks" oflater times) who were responsible for the pre-Kbbb Daishi mountaincult of Kbya-san. The work was intended to stress that the figure
who led Kbbb Daishi to the mountain and allowed him to build
Kongbbu-ji belonged to the sanmin.
The first focus of a mountain cult is the mountain deity itself,)while the second is the ancestor of the celebrants (shisaisha
or hierophants (shireisha FJSS) in charge of the deity's cult. In
cases where a ranking Buddhist monk or adept came and made themountain a place of Shugendo practice, this "opener" is deified andbecomes a third focus of religious devotion. This is the pattern which
I have termed "three deities, three aspects" (samhin san'ya), and which
I have described in detail elsewhere (see GORAI1980). In this pattern,("female deity"), thethe mountain deity is the nyotai shin k%$$original cult leader is the zokutai shin @#$$ ("layman deity"), andthe "opener" is the hottai shin '&#R ("monk deity").
This theory explains why many Shugendo centers honor threemountains and three deities. In the case of the engz of Kbya-san,the mountain deity is the female deity Niutsuhime R!&@.!&% ; the(or Kariba
cult leader is the layman deity Kbya Mybjin &!@$I$$
Mybjin); and the "opener," the hottai, is Kbbb Daishi. At Kbyasan, the nyotai and zokutai deities are honored on Gosha-yama(or Miyashiro-yama) which rises above the temple, and the hottai ishonored in the Oku-no-in. This triad is then revered as eternal,
omniscient, and omnipotent.
This pattern emerges from the analysis of many engi relating tosacred mountains. Seen in this light, the Kbbb Daishi cult at Kbya-san
is not concerned with Kakai as a historical individual. Instead, Kakaia?%GORAI:Shugendo Lore

125

is the hottai deity of a mountain cult. Since this popular cult actuallyexists, one cannot reject it just because the deified Kaba Daishi is
not the historical Kakai, or dismiss as mere superstition the beliefin Kabb Daishi's eternal samadhi. Some scholars would reject as wellthe hunter who figures in the engi story, but such a view ignores
the religious realities. The fact that the word kariudo ("hunter")appears nowhere in Kiikai's own writings does not invalidate thehunter of KmgObu-ji Konrya shugyd engi. If no hunter, or hunters,
had assisted Kakai when he "opened" Kaya-san, no hunter shouldhave suddenly appeared in a document which dates from so longafter Kakai's death.
Engi of Shugendo mountains all over the country speak either ofthe mountain having been opened by a hunter, or of a hunter
having guided the monk who ended up being honored as the opener.
In the case of Kumano Hon@i$@B*g, for example, Chdkan kanmon
BR$&!J*of Chakan 1 (1 163) quotes a Kumano Gongen go-suijaku engi
f i ~ ~ @ ~ @ @ Z @ k & a follow^:^s
In the kame-tora year, a dog-keeper named Kumanobe no Sen'yoj6,
a resident of southern Iwata-gawa ;Ei+$J (present Toda-gawat ) 11 ), shot a boar onej6 % and five shaku R long. He and his dogs
then pursued the boar upstream along the Iwata river to dywgahara, where they found the boar lying dead under a yew tree.
Kumanobe ate of the boar's flesh and spent the night under thetree; whereupon he saw [three] moon[s] at the top of the tree. He
asked, "Why has the moon thus come down &om the sky, to rest
now upon the branches of this tree?" The moon[s] replied to thedog-keeper, "We are called Kumano Sansho Gongen REBZ%@R["The Three Gongen Deities of Kumano"]. One shrine is named
Sh6j6 Daibosatsu $%A%@, and the other two moons are named
Ry6sho ER Gongen ["The Two Gongen Deities"].

This is how the text relates the first appearance of Kumano Sansho
Gongen. No doubt there was originally an engi for each of the three
Kumano sites, and this is the one for Honga. In the story, the
Honga mountain deity took the form of a boar and led the hunterto the foot of a yew. Presumably, Kumanobe no Sen'yojb was thefirst celebrant to honor this deity, so that in this case the wkutai is
a hunter. This hunter probably also founded the priestly house of
Kumano-no-miyatsuko, and his descendants no doubt
Translator's note:Since kuki in the ori@ could be singular or plural, one cannot be surewhether the hunter saw one moon or three; but despite the hunter's question about why themoon had come down from the sky, the text suggests three moons.

126

Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 16/2-3

formed the sanjn community of Kumano Honga. It is not clear who
brought Buddhism to this mountain and thus established Shugendo
there, but there may have existed a Buddhist hijiri 5E (the hottai
deity) who was identified with Amida (the honji of Kumano Honga)
and who was known as Shbjb Daibosatsu.
I n the case of KongObu-ji konrya shugya engi, the hunter (that is,
the sanjn ) who led Kbbb Daishi to Kbya-san is identified as both"the dog-keeper of the Southern Mountains" (nunurn no i n u h io&&I) and as Sannb Ll.JZ("Mountain King"). He is the zokutai.
The nyotai is called Sannb Nia Daimybjin:
In Uchi county of Yamato province he [ K b k Daishi] met a hunter,
red in color and eight shaku tall, wearing a bluish robe and highclogs. He was armed with a bow and arrows, and had with him one
large and one small black dog. When he saw [ K b k Daishi] pass by
he questioned him. [ K b k Daishi] hesitantly asked him who he was.
The hunter replied, "I am the dog-keeper of the Southern Mountains, and I rule a vast stretch of these mountains. In my domain
there is a remote plateau where many wonders occur. . . . [ K b k
Daishi] met there a sanmin who told him, "Southward fi-om here
there is a level depression in the mountains; peaks surround it on
threesides, and access to it is fi-om the southeast. . . .The next morning [KG& Daishi] set off with that sanjin and shortly reached thesaid level depression. Looking about him, [he saw that], indeed, theplace was suitable for building a capital city. The sanjzn then told
[Kbbo Daishi] in confidence, "I am the Mountain King of thismountain. I shall give this land to you and so increase its power andgood fortune. That I, taming the mountain's waters and taming thedeer to man, should have met a bodhisattva [means that] my virtue
is accomplished. . . . When [ K b k Daishi] climbed ten ch higher hefound a depression ten ch broad. This is the site of the shrine of
Sannb NiO Daimybjin. It is now called Amano-miya xgI.8 .

One sees here the image of Kariba Mybjin as it was painted in the
Kamakura period and after. Even now, on Kbya-san, there is a
Myajin-h m@% (religious confraternity) whose annually-appointed
head prays the year through, after fasting and purification, to imagesof Niu-tsu-hime and Kariba M y ~ j i nwhich have been transmitted
secretly within the h.This practice is believed to qualify the practitioner for the post of Hbin kengyb '&E[3&@,as a substitute for
Kbbb Daishi himself, and it is therefore performed scrupulously.
This is a further example which suggests that in a mountain cultthe "three deities and three aspects" are fundamentally one.

127

GORAI:Shugendo Lore

Gosha-yama @$k!-h , which rises above the temple itself on Kbyasan, and where Niu-tsuhime-no-kami and Kariba Mybjin are enshrined, was, even before the middle ages, under the care of thegydnin, that is of the shugend& practitioners of Kongbbu-ji. This
right of stewardship is preserved even now by the temples on themountain which belong to the gydnin line (gydnin-gata). These
temples have also kept the right of stewardship over the Oku-no-in
where Kbbb Daishi is enshrined. It is only natural that in Kongobu-ji
h y i i shugyd engi, the gydnin should have stressed that it was they
who built (konyii) Kongbbu-ji and they too who perform mountainpractices (shugya) there.
To the engi of Shugendo mountains are everywhere added what
one might call "prehistories of the mountain" (kaisOzen ki MfllJK%):
stories of hunters, immortals or gods, or of visitations from Buddhasof the past or from holy sages of one sort or another. Such passages,
however fantastic they appear, should be understood as speaking of
the cult rendered to the mountain by the local sanjin before the"opening" of the mountain ever took place. That the sanjin aroundKbya-san supported this mountain's cult is shown by a tradition thatthe residents of the Ategawa PFJsIIIestate, believed to have been
the first estate developed by Kbya-san, served on Kbya-san as geshu
E%?("flower men"), in other words as yamabushi. In Kdja shunjii
hennen shiiroku , this estate appears under the date Tengyb 4 (941),
in an entry which suggests that local residents were appointed from
Kyoto as servants, guards, flower-gatherers, etc., under the supervision of the m u and the scholar-monks. Traditions to this effectsurvive in the area even today. There is said to survive a flower
basket which was once used by the villagers for sending, annually,
flowering branches of shikimi to Kbya-san. At least in a purely formal
sense, the villagers served as geshu for Kbya-san until the first yearsof the Meiji period.
Since these are the sort of people who wrote the en@ I have been
discussing, it is no wonder that the work fails to impress historians.
No doubt it was written so long after Kakai's death because it tookthat long for the gyanzn, who were essential in many ways for therunning of the temple complex on the mountain, to affirm theirown existence and importance. Actually, this sanjin community may
well have performed Kakai's funeral as well, and in so doing adopted
their own form of tomb, the nyiij6-ruka. As I noted above, the nyiijdzuka form can be seen as well in the tombs of Jichie, Kenne, and

fihx

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Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 16/2-3

Shiien. This idea of nyiijo expresses the sanjin community's faith in
Kbbb Daishi's immortality, which first surfaced in KongGbu-ji hnrya
shugyo engi, once the sanjin community had consolidated its economic
and religious position. It is interesting that Kongbbu-ji konryii shugyb
engi belongs to the period when monks deeply interested in mountainreligion appeared even among the scholar-monks of Kyoto. Some ofthem-men like Shbbb (Rigen Daishi), Kengen, Jbsti, Ningai and
Saikb-even rose to be zasu of Kbya-san.
Shugendo lore of this sort became more complex when it was
adopted by the Shingon and Tendai scholar-monks themselves. It
also came to be distorted by Shingon and Tendai doctrine. However,
the gyonin and d6shu %Z% (that is, the geshu ) continued to resist thescholar-monks, as the history of every Shugendo mountain makes
clear. That is how Shugendo lore came to be preserved at all, in
one form or another.

Lore on Shugendo Practice Sites and Nyiibu Rites
Shugendo activity ceased for some time after it was banned following
the Meiji Restoration, and much Shugendo lore was lost. Only documents like Kinpusen sds6ki or Sh6bodaisan engi (reprinted in the Shug d 6 sh6so volumes of the Nihon daiz6kyd) afford even a tiny glimpseof nyiibu rites and practices at the shuku, such as they existed before
the middle ages. Kinpusen sbs6ki records entries through the Heianperiod, but it was probably compiled in late Kamakura times. S b bodaisan engi is dated Bunki 3 (1503),and therefore provides precious
information on practices current in the Muromachi period. It also
contains a variant version of Kumano Gongen go-suijaku engi, a
Kumano-sun h g y 6 Raigon ki a 8 8 Cll&@&EZ dated Kanji 3 (1O89),
and it notes the names andand a Kinpusen hon-engi &@Cll&@jE;
dwelling-places of the Hachi Dai Kongb Dbji ~k&Ifd!lf?
("Eight
Great Vajra Minions"). Part of the text duplicates the Shomn engi
which now belongs to the Imperial Household Agency, and whichis also a precious document on Kinpusen traditions. While describing
what corresponds to the present "seventy-five nabiki " (that is, seventy-five shuku ) as the "one hundred and twenty-one sites," it actually lists only eight-eight such sites, the rest having sunk into
oblivion. Again, Shugen buchii hiden, which was printed in Genroku
7 (1694), lists the practice sites of Kinpusen with their histories, andrecords their "secret songs." It therefore shows what sort of infor-

GORAI:Shugendo Lore129

mation was publicly available in the Edo period. Apparently, the"secret songs" of Kinpusen (buchii hika) were learned by sendatsu
and novice yamabushi from elsewhere in Japan, on the occasion of
the Kinpusen nyiibu, and carried by them back to their home areas.
There, the songs were sung as utagura in association with kagura
8%offerings. Six such songs, including some not recorded in Buchii
hiden @+@&, were part of the utagura of the Mikawa HanaMatsuri 3 m E g (yamabzlshi kagura). For example:

m#@%shide kake totbte tazunete
kite mireba
shide de wa nakutekami n o bonten

Seeking out shide-kake where the sacredstreamers hang, I arrive and see notstreamers but the heaven of the gods.

This song is absent from Buchii h&;nor do the Omine sendatsu
of Shbgoin know it any longer. Therefore, it appears to have beentransmitted to Mikawa before the Edo period.
Once when I was on a nyiibu in the Omine mountains, the yamabushi had just gone round the Bybdb-iwa (once known as Gybdb-iwa)on the ura-gydba Sfig of Sanjb-ga-take mk..t B . They then headed
toward the mountaintop Zabd6, intoning this poem as they went:
B ydb-iwa
megurite mireba
akotaki nosutsuru inochi mo
Fudb Kurikara

Bydb-iwa rock: around it I go, to find thatthe very life I cast away
is Fudb and Kurikara.
(The meaning of akotaki is unclear.)

Just then the sendatsu remarked to me, "This spot is called Mottenkake, though I really don't know why." This tiny fragment of tradition was unexpectedly helpful. Assuming that motten is a corruptionof motoyui, then motten-kake is no doubt connected to the shidekake of the "secret song" quoted above, and also to the shim-kakeand the Chiirenji g g + of Yudono-san @BU. When I took
part in the aki-mine $&@ practice (the jikkai shugya) of Haguro-san,I myself wore the shim-kesa :&&@g (or yii-shide) of twisted paper(koyori #?&@), which is worn by novice yamabushi. Numerous shimkesa like it hang in the branches of the trees around the Go-shintaiiwa $I@@#&at Yudono-san. The yamabushi presumably wore it
during the nyiibu, and while on the mountain they prayed for theprotection of the Hachidai Kongb D6ji in a formula which included
the words: 0-shim ni Hachidai KongO Ddji ichi-ichi raihai $6 L & K A k&MUg?--.t&#(''On my shime-kesa I worship one by one the Six

z@jJapanese Journal of Religious Studies I6/2-3
Great Vajra Minions"). The novice yamabushi on Haku-san apparently wore the same shim-kesa, for a Shugendo document at Nagataki
E@ Haku-san Jinja in Mino mentions yii-shide in connection witha document from Miwa Shinto (in medieval times, Miwa Shugendo).
Therefore, at both Miwa and Haku-san, yamabushi on a nyiibu apparently wore a shime-kesa made of mulberry cords (ya-him) roundtheir necks.
All this suggests that on Omine, too, novices performed the nyiibu
wearing shim-kesa of twisted paper (koyori, motoyui), and that when
the practice of the Sanj6-ga-take ura-gybba was over, they hung thesekesa nearby, on a tree. Consequently, it seems likely that a n ancientmountain-cult custom of making the nyiibu pilgrimage wearing
motoyui, shim or shide hanging from the shoulders as tasuki cords,
fused with the Buddhist wearing of the hsa until these cords became
the yui-gesa @?&@ characteristic of the yamabushi. The wearing ofaccessories very like Buddhist kesa by sendatsu (the highest-ranking
members of a yamabushi group) contrasts with the wearing by novices (the lowest-ranking members of the same group) of accessories
which still recall the shim characteristic of pre-Buddhist practices.
Thus, fragments of lore preserved outside Omine can serve to solvea puzzle related to the Omine nyfibu itself.
Even today, the oral tradition of Omine preserves songs not foundin Buchii hiden. For example, the "secret song" of the Kane-no-torii
at Yoshino is as follows:
yoshino naru
kane no torii ni
te o kakete
mida no j d o ni
iru zo ureshiki

Pressing my hand against the Kane-no-torii
in Yoshino, I am filled with joy as I enter
Arnida's Pure Land.

T h e pilgrims sing it as they turn around a pillar of the torii,
rubbing the pillar with their hands. Bucha hiden has the following:
Kane-no-torii: it is known as Nehan-mon @gr9or again as 0 ~ 6 monQ&B7 . . . .This is the first gate through which all the Buddhas
pass on the way to their attainment of perfect enlightenment. Thisis never, never to be revealed. . . . The secret song is:mina hito wa
a-ji yori idete
a-ji ni ina-ji koso mot0 nosumika narikeri

All people everywhere are born from the
Sanskrit letter A and return to it again;
the letter A is our original dwelling.

GORAI:Shugendo Lore131

Likewise, the present "secret song" for the Kakure-to %h%(Kenuke-tb) too is missing from BuchB hiden:
yoshino naru
miyama no oku no
kakure-t6
honrai kii nosumika narikeri

Deep in the mountains at Yoshino, theKakure-t6 is the dwelling place of original
emptiness.

The present "secret song" for the Kanekake-iwa is:kanekake tot6te tazunete
kite mireba
kuketsu no hora oshita ni koso mire

Seeking out the Kanekake rock, I arrive there
and see, there below me, the Nine caves.

In contrast, Bucha hiden gives the song as follows:
kanekake totazune-mukaeba
kokekura no
kuhon no j6do ni
au zo ureshiki

Seeking out the Kanekake rock, I am filledwith joy to find the Nine-Grade Pure Land
Land of the mossy rocWcaves.

kanekake ni
noborite mireba
kane mo nashi
kokoro no mida ni
au zo ureshiki

Scaling the Kanekake rock, I find no kane("metal") there, but joy fills my heart as I
encounter Amida.

andThus, the present version is clearly somewhat corrupt. The Mikawa
Hanamatsuri utagura version is:
kanekake tot6te tazunete
kite mireba
kane de wa nakutekami no torii TO

Seeking out the Kanekake rock, I arrive there
and see that it is not kane,
but the torii of the gods.

Therefore, the Kanekake-iwa was once thought of as the gateway
into the mountaintop world of the gods, later imagined as Amida's
pure land.
The religious ideas and meanings connected with these practicesites on the ny.iibu route are difficult to grasp or to reconstruct. The"secret song" sung by the present-day yamabushi as they climb thechain up the Kanekake-iwa corresponds to a tradition that below
this rock there are nine caves; that a Zab Gongen known as Anano-Zab ("Zab-in-the-cave")is honored there; and that these caves are

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Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 16/2-3

the nine grades (kuhon hoPa ) of the Pure Land of Bliss. The "ninegrades of the pure land" of Buchii hiden is, in the present version,"nine caves"; and in Buchii h u h the place is also referred to as "theeastern gate of the land of bliss." At Seburi-yama g#Z!-lJtoo, in
Kyushu, Jbgiitbmon-ji kgXB?%!fis said to derive its name from thissame conception of "the eastern gate of the land of bliss." This
interpretation is based upon the conception, common in the Shugendo tradition, of the "twin oceans of the perfect nature" (s&enshbkai
and is therefore continuous with left-handed essetsu gPJ#@%),
otericism (Tachikawa-ryii all1 ?%). As Buch.ii hidm puts it in connection with the kuktsu no hora hR4>'$J mentioned in the present"secret song" for Kanekake-iwa:
The nine-grade pure land is the Womb Realm (Taiz6kai). The
mother is Daishb Fudb My66kgT@# 3 .Because it is the Womb
Realm, one remains there nine months (kugetsu hfl ); and so it iscalled the nine-grade pure land. Therefore the vagina (sh6kai !&?@
,literally "birth-sea") is called the eastern gate of the land of bliss.
The moment ofimplantation ofthe seed is called "the eastern gate."
The moment of birth is called "the western gate." The opening of
the gate of the womb is called "the western gate of the land ofbliss."
All the Buddhas of the ten directions are born through this gate.
There is nothing in the way of the Buddha (h@6) or the wayof the world (seh '&& ) which does not thus follow the pattern of
yin and yang.

4.sHowever, Omine Shugendo treats this "eastern gate of the landof bliss" as a kahkotoba in the song, and turns it into the entrance
into the pure land of Kinpusen, which is found on Sanj6-ga-take.
Since Kanekake is the gate to the world of the buddhas and deities
of Sanjb-ga-take, the "secret song" calls it kami no torii. Furthermore,"Kanekake" has yet another meaning. There hangs from this fifteen
meter-high rock an iron chain which is probably the original reason
for the name Kanekake ("hung with metal"). However, Kanekake isalso the first practice-site on the way into Sanjb-ga-take, and so isa test of the novice's strength and courage. O n Ishizuchi-yama6@LLl(Shikoku), a similar chain is called kokoromi no kusari ("the testing
chain") for that reason. Thus, "torii of the gods" o r "eastern gateof the land of bliss" are equally suitable for a spot which marks theentrance into a sacred realm.
T h e interpretation of a single "secret song" thus requires one togather together all sorts of lore, and inevitably involves a certain

GORAI:Shugendo Lore133

degree of conjecture. One who makes this effort cannot trust evena book like Buchzi hiden, though it was published three hundredyears ago. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that one must
compare locally collected lore with lore which has diffused from
Omine to other parts of the country.
Another "secret song" involves 0-kame-ishi ("Turtle Rock"), thesite which follows Kanekake-iwa on the ura-gybba route of Sanjb-gatake. A great rock bulges from the earth there like the back of a
tortoise. The site is understood as being the "Bosatsu-mon" (Bodhisattva Gate), one of the "Four Gates" of Omine (Omzne shimon k@
e4B7 ).6 Since the rock is impossible to miss, present-day yamabushi
pilgrims always pause at it, perform a ceremony and sing the "secretsong." However, neither Buchzi hiden nor Konohu-goromo *%& mention it at all. The "secret song" shows that the rock was consideredtaboo:
o-kame ishi
Turtle Rock: tread it not, strike it not.
furnu na tataku natsue tsuku na
yokete t6re yotabi no shinkyaku

Make a detour around it, you who are new
to this path.

According to the sendatsu, 0-kame-ishi continues below ground all
the way to Kumano. The terms ybgb-ishi %[;;("rock16 where thegod appeared") or go&-ishi s , E 6 ("rock of the protector spirit") are
no longer associated with it, but they must have been in the pastperhaps the deity who appeared there was Kumano Gongen. At firstglance, the rock reminds one of the legendary island of Hbrai, which
is supported on the back of a turtle, or of the fabled longevity ofthe tortoise. However, in this case these associations are implausible.
0-kame-ishi probably has to do with the idea, widespread in Shugendo, that mountain rocks are directly connected with the ocean andwith the rise and fall of the tides. This belief ties together themountain-god cult of Shugendo and the sea-god cult of the coast.
The Gybdb-iwa ("Path-of-practice rock") so prominent in Shugendo
traditions turns out to be a meguri-ishi (a rock which the practitioner
must clamber around). The clue, as I realized recently, is provided
by Saigyb's kotobagaki (prose introduction) to poem no. 1370 in Sankushzi, a poem which Saigyb wrote on Shikoku. I have already menThe others are the Hosshin-mon, which is Kane-no-torii in the village of Yoshino; theShugy6-mon at the entrance to Kinpu Jinja;and the Nehan-mon, which is before the Za6d6
in Yoshino.

Japanese J o u d of Religious Studies 16/2-3

134

tioned the Gybdb-iwa on Sanjb-ga-take. Saigyb's text made it clear
to me that this was a site @ado-dokoro) for the meguri-gyada practiceof Shugendo. Saigyb wrote:
I went up to the gy6d6-dokoro of Mandara-ji. The climb is extremely
difficult, being almost vertical. On the mountaintop here, [Kbk]
Daishi buried sutra texts which he had copied. Outside the[practitioner's] hut there is built a platform (dun @ ) one j6 high.
[ K 6 b Daishi] is supposed to have climbed onto this platform daily
and to have performed gy6d6. The platform is built in two steps, sothat one can perform a meguri-gy6& [around it].

T h e remains of this platform are still there, beyond the Zenjb-in
on Gahaishi-san @g@C
.LSaigyb's[
text makes clear thenature of the gyada practice and suggests that many similar gyada
sites must have existed. In fact, the pilgrimage roads (heji) around
Shikoku and the Kumano peninsula appear to be extended megum'g y d h routes.
Other fragmentary evidence, both written and oral, shows that the
famous nozoki no gya @ $ 4 > f i of Omine represents a survival froman earlier shashin gya g&fi ("practice of abandonment of the body").
T h e shashin gyb consisted of casting oneself from a precipice for the
purpose of "abolishing sins" (metsuzai @% ) and "attaining buddha). Thus, the nozoki practice is a rite which mimics
hood" (j2mtsu
death, followed by rebirth with a new body and mind. As Bucha
jusshu shugyb sah8 shows, it also functioned as a g6 no hakari %OR("weighing of karma") practice. Its indoor version is to be seen in
the jikkai shugyd of Haguro-san. I discovered that such a practice
had existed all over Japan when, in 1976, I took part in the nyabu
of Rybzen SLlJ and heard that there exists on the mountain a rockwhich used to be named Tsuribune-iwa $9&% . Rocks by this nameturn out to exist also on Kinka-zan &gLL , on Kurikoma-yama%,@JLL!, and on the oku-gydba route of Hbmanzan Z$i?jLL!
in Kyushu.
Almost all over Japan, therefore, the nozoki no gya was known astsuribune no gyb.

@zk%,

Lore Involving F o m r Shugendo Structures

O n mountains where Shugendo once thrived, the temples, chapels,and residence halls of long ago have often been replaced by meadowsor cryptomeria forests. The past seems to have vanished without a
trace. Of course, times change, and the shinbutsu bunn' movement of

GORAI:Shugendo Lore135

the early Meiji period surely did its work. No one can turn backhistory. O n the other hand, humans are constantly seeking lost records and artifacts of the past; and the more the past has to teachthem, the more worthwhile the effort is. In the case of Shugendo,
the effort is highly significant for the sort of reasons I have alreadyexplained.
The destruction associated with the Meiji Restoration often left
little at former Shugendo sites beyond stone walls, foundation stones,or the remains of old roads. A happy exception is Kubote-san $%$??
CLI in Buzen, where I was recently amazed to find the Shugendorelics well cared for. For this, special thanks are due to a devoted
local resident named Shigematsu Toshio. However, a deeper reason
for the good condition of Kubote-san is, no doubt, the rich varietyof physical remains, documents and other lore which survive there.
O n most former Shugendo mountains which once boasted "threeshrines and three temples" (sankya san'in Z g 3 E ), the shrines alone
survive, while the temples are gone. Kubote-san still has its Upper
Shrine (Kami-no-miya k$ ) and its Middle Shrine (Naka-no-miya);
and below the Middle Shrine there survive a number of the residencehalls (ba % ) where the yamabushi once lived. These are a particularly precious relic of the past.
I first noticed the salzkya san'in pattern associated with Shugendo
mountains in connection with the "Sanbaba" ,%%(three "riding
ground" sites) of Haku-san. With respect to Mino-no-baba (the "Minoriding ground"), for example, Itoshiro Chakyo EI@Q
q E Jinja wasconsidered the Middle Shrine, while the Lower Shrine was Nagataki
Haku-san Jinja-where the Lower Temple (gein TE ), Chbryii-jiE%%, survives. Pilgrims from the Mino side passed these two on
their way to the Upper Shrine. However, from the standpoint of
the Kuzurya-gawa route via Echizen-no-baba, Itoshiro Chakyo Jinja
had to be the Lower Shrine, while Heisen-ji 9g% Haku-san Jinja
was the Middle Shrine. Later, however, the Echizen pilgrims, seeking
the shortest possible distance, probably began crossing the middle
slopes of Santb-san ZBlLI and climbing via Ushikubi +G in Shiramine-mura Q@H of Kaga, so that Itoshiro Chakyo Jinja retained its
significance only as the Middle Shrine for Mino-no-baba. If so, thennot only was there a time when Echizen and Mino both considered
Itoshiro Chiikyo Jinja their Middle Shrine, but Taichb himself, in"opening" Haku-san, must have passed over Bessan XI1I.h to reachthe Upper Shrine (Oku-no-in) on Ogozen-no-mine A@%@.

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Japanese J o u d of Religious Studies 16/2-3

Various puzzles become clear if one applies this theoretical sankyii
san'in pattern to other Shugendo remains elsewhere. It has been said
that the chiikyo qE ("middle station") of Itoshiro Chakyo Jinja isprobably like the chiigo +% at Tate-yama: a place between
the realm of gods and the realm of humans, where oracles weredelivered. However, Taichb too, the Haku-san "opener," may thenhave used this spot as his chfikyo, that is, the place where he purified
himself and did various preparatory practices before proceeding to
the summit. If so, then Itoshiro Chiikyo Jinja may actually enshrine
Taichb as the hottai deity of the mountain. In this case, the shrine
originally honored not the Three Deities of Haku-san (Haku-sun
sansho) but Kokiiza Bosatsu, for Kokazb is Taichb's honji-butsu. Taichb
which
g
was
no doubt practiced the Kokaw gumnji no hd $f;W@(~ubhakarasimha)in Ch'angtranslated by Zenmui Sanzb $3@5$3j&
an in 717, brought to Japan the following year by Dbji 3%of
Daian-ji ;it-%% , and widely adopted by mountain practitioners at
Yoshino and elsewhere. Thus, this transmission could be connectedwith Taichb's opening of Haku-san in 719, and could also be thereason why the engi of many temples-for example, Ango-ji %E?F
in Etchil-claim that Zenmui Sanzb once lived there.
Since physical remains, too, have thus changed with the passageof time, one must reconstruct their past by examining the site itself
and by gathering lore related to it. For example, the position of
Yoshino itself has varied greatly. The first "Yoshino" was Hiso ,!kg(in Oyodo-chb k y Z q, Yoshino), across Takatori-yama
from
Asuka %,% . This was the site of Yoshino-dera $83 (also known
as Hiso-dera kL%% , Genkb-ji g2x%or Seson-ji #$$% ). However,the Kinpusen "Yoshino" was above Miyataki g:&,where Emperors
Tenmu and Jitb had their Yoshino palace. In other words, it was
Aone-ga-mine @&! 9 @ (859 m.), where Kinpu Jinja now stands. The
present "Oku-no-senbon" %2?$ , a level space where one now
finds Saigyb-an E6B and the spot known as Kokeshimizu %%&,
was a part of it. Moreover, the place names Aizen gR and Hbtb%% , found in the same area, are associated with the former siteof Anzen-ji, the Middle Hall of Kinpusen. Aizen is the site of Anzen-ji
itself. At Hbtb, the foundation of the temple's pagoda is still visible.
According to the late Nakai Zenrya +#@@, the resident priest of
Kizb-in B&% in Yoshino, it was still standing after the Meiji Restoration, and simply collapsed later.
My fieldwork at Yoshino taught me that the "opening" of a&mlli

GORAI:Shugendo Lore

137

Shugendo mountain normally began with establishing the Middle
Shrine or Middle Hall. This was true at Haku-san, where the process
began with the chakyo, that is, with the Middle Shrine on the Kagaside. The Upper and Lower Shrines associated with the sanbaba camelater. At Kbya-san, too, the "opening" began with the Middle Shrine(the Amano-sha) then continued with the establishment of the Upper
Shrine (the Arnano Shisha
Mybjin shrine of Kongbbu-ji) andvarious Lower Shrines in the villages around the base of the mountain (Niu
Mybjin shrines). Yoshino itself began with Kinshb&% Mybjin (Kinpu Jinja), the Middle Shrine, and with Anzen-ji(Zab-db), the Middle Hall. Then came the Zabdb on Sanjb-ga-takeand the Zab-db below the mountain-the present Kinpusen-ji. Everywhere, however, the Middle Shrine and Middle Hall were the firstto be abandoned. As a result, the "opening" of the mountain appears
to have begun either from its summit or from its base.
At Aizen, one finds the remains of extensive residence halls. The
same is true at Amano on Kbya-san, at Kaga-no-baba (a Middle
Shrine) on Haku-san, and at Ashikura-ji F!l&+(Chaga-ji +$% )on Tate-yama. In the case of Aizen, the village of Kisa-dani g&%,on the way from Miyataki to Aizen, is said to have been the original
yamabushi community. Above Aizen stretches a level space known
as Hiro-sengen fif B ,' now a cryptomeria wood. Here too there
seem to have been many residence halls, and there is also a cemetery.
At nearby Iwakura, there are bb even now, but in the past there
were so many that the place was called Iwakura-sengen. Fujiwara
no Michinaga stayed the night there when he made his pilgrimage
to Kinpusen in 1007; he went on to bury sutras at Aizen. The
remains of other clusters of residence halls survive in many places.
Taiheiki for Genkb 3 (1333) (kan 7, "Yoshino-jb ikusa no koto"*!I%&%Z&) describes the troops of Nikaidb Michimori sweeping
down from "Aizen Hbtb," uttering sharp battle cries and setting fireto every building along the way.
There was a large yamabushi community at Torisumi ,%&3 , too,
about a kilometer away. This is probably where the young Kakai
stayed, and where many Shingon-affiliated yamabushi lived after him.
Perhaps this is where Shbbb, together with his disciples Kangen andJbsa, performed the Buju hnjb Gg:@B ("initiation into the mysteriesof the peak") in Shbtai 3 (900). This was the beginning of the'Translator's note: Sengen means literally " a thousand houses."Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 16/2-3

138

mm%

Daigo-ji line of Shugendo. Later on, Torisumi Hbkaku-ji
beof!@
Tozan Shugendo.
lcame the sd-furegushira &$The site of the Daikbdb k%g ("great lecture hall") of Anzen-ji
presents an interesting problem which I do not pretend to have
solved. If, as I believe, the Daikbdb was the heart of a Shugendo
temple, this one should have been situated on the level ground ateither Kokeshimizu or Hbtb; but both sites seemed a little constricted.
At any rate, Shugendo temples had neither a Konda &Z ("golden("main hall"). T h e building correspondinghall") nor a Hondb
to either of these was the mountain deity's shrine itself, for which
the Daikbdb-or so I believe -was the Haiden ;)J&("worship hall").
It was called the mgatoko E K ("long house"), and in most cases
was a long, narrow building. The foundation stones of a good example are visible at Heisen-ji Haku-san Jinja in Echizen. Moreover,the vast Haiden of Nagataki Haku-san Jinja surely imitates an earlier
Daikbdb; and one sees next to it, on old maps, a Honji-db *%E
which was perhaps a forerunner of the shrine's Hondb. There were,
however, places with both a Haiden and a Kbdb. There, the building
where the priest recited norito for the mountain deity, and thebuilding where the yamabushi gathered, were presumably separate.
After shinbutsu bunri, the Daikbdb of many Shugendo mountains
became a shrine hall: a Haiden at Iwaki-san Jinja, Hiko-san Jinja
and Nagataki Haku-san Jinja, and at Dewa Jinja on Haguro-san a
combination Shinden @B/Haiden where the innermost sanctuary
enshrines the deities of Haguro San-zan and Kumano. Elsewhere,
however, as at the Okusha
of Togakushi or at Heisen-ji Hakusan Jinja, there is nothing left but foundation stones. The yamabushi
used to gather at the Daikbdb for religious or other assemblies,
whenever they heard the call of the conch shell, the bell and thewooden clappers (itagz @$ ).
An important feature of any Shugendo mountain was the kekkai@% ("restricted zone"). At first, this boundary might not be crossedby any unclean person, but later the "restricted zone" became exclusively a nyonin &A kekkai, closed only to women. The nyonink e k i of Omine still survives as an area measuring some four kilometers north-south and three kilometers east-west, and centered on
Sanjb-ga-take. The last time I myself climbed Sanjb-ga-take, in 1969,
the nyonin kekkai began at Aizen, some thirty kilometers before thesummit. T h e next year, however, the whole area up to Takaharano-tsuji
was opened up to all visitors. Since Aizen, where the

*=

*a

$!i%a

GORAI:Shugendo Loreold kekkai had begun, was the Middle Shrine, the earlier boundary
had clearly acknowledged the sacredness of the realm beyond it. At
Haku-san, too, the Heian-period Shira-yam no ki clearly specifies
that women were not allowed beyond Itoshiro Chakyo Jinja (SAKURAI
1975, p. 300).
At Kbya-san, the nyonin Kekkai is explained by saying that thepresence of women would have distracted the monks from theirstudies. The real reason for it, however, was that Kbya-san was a
Shugendo mountain. Therefore, the kxkkai now marked by the
Nyonin-db k h s ("women's hall") and the Daimon APE]("greatgate") presumably represents a shrinking of the original boundary.
Earlier, the kekkai must have begun further away at Amano, theMiddle Shrine; which would be why the Kbya hijim' kept their wives
and children at Amano. Later, the boundary apparently came to bemarked by the Oshiage-iwa @kg ("lifted-up rock"). Legend has itthat when Kbbb Daishi's mother stepped onto the mountain itself,in violation of the kekkai, she immediately began to menstruate andfire rained from the heavens; while at the same time, Kbbb Daishi
lifted up this rock before her to bar her advance.
Another example of a shrinking kxkkai can be found at Togakushi.
According to Kenkd-ji ruki, dated Chbroku 2 (1458), in Kbhei 1 (1058)
the kekkai reached to the spot known as Fushiogami B# near Hbkbin %%E. Among the san'in (Three Halls) of Togakushi, Hbkbincorresponds to the Lower Hall. In the Kamakura period, however,the boundary was moved up to the Middle Shrine, where the remainsof the Nyonin-db can still be seen beside the path. Then, in the
Edo period, women were allowed all the way up to the Oku-sha at
Koshimizu-hara @%% . Since such changes in the kkkai boundary
may be connected with fluctuations in the vigor of the Shugendocommunities, they deserve careful study. Kekkai-ishi ("boundarystones") and their lore are important in this regard. So are theprobably related uba-ishi ("old woman stones") and shibari-ishi ("binding stones").
Another Shugendo tradition which died out long ago is that of
the Jbka-db Rjkg ("pure fire hall"), where there burned an eternal,sacred flame. The link between Shugendo and sacred fire deserves
further study, for fire is an important theme in Japanese religion.
I discovered only in 1973, from an old Haguro-san map which waspart of a Shugendo exhibition, that a Jbka-db had once stood on
the mountain. Going straight the site itself, I found the building's

140Japanese J o u m l of Religious Studies 16/2-3

remains at the Oku-no-in. T h e fire was believed to have been lit
either by the Haguro-san "opener," Hiruko-no-bji !kikTS? , or byhis successor, Kbshun Ajari SL@PTmg . It was tended by the j O hbetto RABJS ("warden of the sacred flame") who resided at Hijirino-bb %Z$!j. At Haguro-san, the word hijiri often designates specifically Hiruko-no-bji or Kbshun, but in this case it had a broader
meaning. In fact, it clearly designated the so-called mtsu-hijin @%("torch hijiri") of the mountain. Thus, Hijiri-no-bb was the residenceof the matsu-hijin charged with lighting the sacred flame. No doubt
the practice which qualified one to act as mtsu-hijiri, and the proper
method of lighting the flame, can still be seen in the mtsu-uchi @S("torch-lighting") or mtsu-hijiri gy$i (in Shinto terminology, sh8rei-sai@X@Z) which is still performed at Haguro-san on the last day of
the year.
Other, still-surviving examples of sacred fires include the kiezu no
hi # k f 0 A ("ever-burning flame") in the Reika-db SAZZ at theon Itsukushima gdlb ; and the fire bysummit of Mt. Misenthe same name at Kobu & Z Jinja, formerly a building used by the. Water boiled over these flames is believed
Shugendo of Nikkb ET
to avert disasters and to summon good fortune. However, there aremany sites where the fire no longer burns, even though the Jbka-db
itself still exists. An example is the Jbka-db at the Oku-no-in of
Yamadera Ryashakuji Cll+iZZ+. An old monk of the temple told
me that the warden of the Jbka-db served at the same time as thenyob-kya hijiri $LIE@%(hijiri in charge of the ritual copying of the
Lotus Sutra). This precious clue shows that the hijin' who lit thesacred fire had to have abolished all sins thanks to Lotus Sutra practices, and to be as pure as a kami or buddha. At Hoki Daisen in
the Edo period, two nyok shugyoshu used to climb Misen and bring
down pure water with which to copy the sutra. No doubt they wereconnected with both pure water and pure fire.

$$mConcluding Remarks
Thus, the different kinds of Shugendo lore are vital materials forresearch on Shugendo. Hitherto, scholars have tended to work witheither documents or artifacts. However, studies of Shugendo rites
and obervances have recently been increasing, which is a sign thatthe value of this lore is beginning to be recognized. Still, oral traditions continue to be neglected, since investigators have not known

GORAI:Shugendo Lore141

exactly how to use them. Yet to one who has grasped the rightapproach, the least hint from a yamabushi or from someone versed
in local lore can become a valuable clue.
Although unknown Shugendo documents undoubtedly remain to
be discovered, there is a limit to the information they can provide.
Moreover, many passages, even in documents which have been poredover repeatedly by researchers, remain exceedingly difficult to understand. To interpret them correctly, one has no choice but to relyon the collection and analysis of the kind of materials I have examined here. I can only hope that this approach to Shugendo studies
will flourish in years to come, and that future scholars will go far
beyond what I myself have been able to do.

REFERENCES(Shugen) buchii hiden I'@@@ %&fi1985 In Nihon daizdkyd, Shugendd shdsho El[NDSS] vol. 1, pp. 557-584. Nihon Daizbkyb Hensankai, ed.
Tokyo: Meicho Shuppan (reprint).

*k%@I'@%ze&

Ch6kan kanmon j?g@*
1893-1902 In Gu&
ruijii Rs%@ [GR], Hanawa Hokiichi %R2-,ed. Tokyo: Keizai Shuppansha.
GORAIShigeru 5%
1975 Kdya hijiri. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.
1980 Hakone-san shugen no nishu no engi ni tsuiteB$J?!Cl@&$$O
1%4> @ a K 9 L T. In S h u g d no bijutsu, geirtrj, bungaku(I)@I&S4>%#*?(I), Gorai Shigeru, ed. (Sangaku
shiikyoshi M y i i sdsho vol. 14.) Tokyo: Meicho Shuppan.
\

Hakone GongenE
@
ig%
ne%
&
%
Z
1982 In Muromachi jidai monogatan' taisei ~VE%fi%%k&, vol.
10, no. 308. Yokoyama Shigeru
and Matsumoto
Takanobu @*@g , ed. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.
Hakone-sun engi narabini jo

E&!&@&$$E , GR, vol. 2.

K W - j i ruki EYt.%'&Z1970 Shinam shiryd &$%3!2H , vol. 8. Nagano: Shinano Shiryb
Kankbkai.

142

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Kinpusen sasaki &@l-Lt#Jgz, NDSS vol. 3, pp. 361-378.
KongBbujz kon?ya shugyb engi &Rl!@%@*@fi@@
1931-1933In Zoku gumho mija @RSB@ [ZGR]. Hanawa Hokiichi,
ed. Tokyo: Naigaishoseki.
Kaya shunjii h e n m sharoku ~
~
%
~
~
~
@
1979 In Dainihon b u k . 6 mh El $4L%48 , vol. 87. Suzuki
Gakujutsu Zaidan, ed. Tokyo: Meicho Fukyakai (reprint),
pp. 107-304.

, ed.
SAKURA~
Tokutarb @#@A@
1975 Jisha en@ +$kg&.
Nihon shisa taikei vol. 20. Tokyo: lwanami
Shoten.
Sh6bodaban-to engi ~ ~ $ E C l l % % &, NDSS vol. 3, pp. 369-377.
Tenchi reiki ki *%%%$,ZGR vol. 3a.

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