The last of a three-part series on Yamagata Mountain Ascetics
Those figures retreating into the fogged mountains of Dewa-Sanzan are the Yamabushi. For over a thousand years these secretive, ritualistic, asectics have cultivated powers within sacred zones of the mountains; enduring harsh initiations to seek a perfect union with nature.
Looking up you’ll see the walls are lined with photographs of the remembered dead; old Yamabushi wearing elaborate costumes who look down upon you as you sit on the tatami floor. This is the main room of Hiroshi Hoshino’s Shukubo, a lodging created for monks. Today this Shukubo is one of about 30 around the Dewa-Sanzan mountains; hundreds of years ago there were ten times more. “Some of the old generation still come, but the younger generation don’t. Honestly we don’t know how to bridge that gap, maybe it’s just the way the generations flow, they can’t understand the Yamabushi way.”
Hoshino is gregarious and talkative, a good host. He is a 17th generation Yamabushi and has operated a Shukubo since he was 18, guiding thousands of followers (casually known as ‘Shinja’) through the intricacies of the Shugendo belief system. While there are thousands of regular Shukubo around Japan, Yamabushi Shukubo are special; they function as a Shugendo training camp and spiritual school. “Shukubo are important because this is the start of Yamabushi culture, this is where knowledge is passed down,” says Hoshino. He will act as a mentor, guide and leader to visiting Shinja—regular people who come to raise their social and spiritual status—advising them on how to survive the nine day mountain intiations, how to pray and how to use sacred Yamabushi objects.
Hoshino moves into his small alter room. In Buddhism these home alters are called Butsudan, in Shinto they are known as Kamidana, but Hoshino’s Shugendo alter is a sacred miscellany combining elements from both: spiritual papers, texts for chanting, candles, incense, wooden deities, holy rope, and hôragai. The understanding of each item’s function only stays alive if Shinja visit the Shukubo, which is why, each year, Hoshino travels to do “sales” in Chiba, a practice Shukubo owners have performed since Edo times. He holds small lectures at public halls with the hope that he can attract some people to the Dewa-Sanzan initiations. It’s not hard to convince people; as recent as the 1950′s the men of northern Japan were not considered men (or an adult) until they had trained in the mountains with Yamabushi.
Before we leave the Shukubo Hoshino pull out two photographs from the wall, one in black and white and one in colour. The black and white photo is of his father, shirtless, carrying an enormous ritual rope, the color photo is of himself, shirtless, carrying an identical ritual rope. In these images we see a relection of the Shugendo mandala—a profoundly experienced cycle of life, death, and rebirth—carried from the past into the future by people like Hoshino. “That is what I enjoy most about this work, the weight of history, I like how that burden feels.”
Original text and photography of this entry appeared in Paper Sky No. 34 (New York, 2010)