Last Updated: Aug 10, 2023

Uketamo (I Accept)

Training with the Dewa Sanzan Yamabushi

Back to nature, back to yourself.

— Yamabushido

Faithful readers, are you anything like me, a hopelessly addicted social media junkie? Have you lost all sense of connection with nature and the real world around you? Upon waking, do you immediately open up the Instagram app to see how many likes your latest selfie got without ever once stopping to contemplate the miracle that is your own life? Do you feel like a manbaby (or whatever the female equivalent is) whose supposed transition into adulthood is little more than an outward charade? If so, then listen up because this is the article for you. You see, though it had long since been on my bucket list, I recently finally had the chance to train with the Yamabushi in the Dewa Sanzan mountains of Yamagata Prefecture. Suffice to say, it was the most transformative experience of my life, bar none.

Before diving into the details, allow me to first provide you with some context on the Yamabushi and their complex “religion” of Shugendo. This way, you can appreciate what’s to come. Essentially a highly syncretic amalgam of esoteric Buddhism, indigenous mountain worship, Shinto and Taoism, Shugendo has roots dating way back to the Heian period (794–1185). These days though, it resembles more a set of inherited practices and philosophies than a codified faith. Likewise, Shugendo seems to have a much larger focus on real world training versus dogma and beliefs when compared to Christian practices. Previously, participation in these ascetic undertakings was limited only to men yet recently groups have started to welcome any individual seeking to overcome the challenges of tomorrow.

Now, you may be wondering how the bloody hell such a delicate balance of potentially conflicting beliefs can so easily coexists side-by-side as they do in Shugendo. Here you need to remember that up until the Meiji government forcibly separated Buddhism and Shinto in 1868, syncretism was the norm for most of Japan. Therefore, Shugendo is just a more extreme example of this layering that borrows additional bits from other synergistic schools and philosophies. Actually, Shugendo consists of a fundamental…