Shugendō: mountain practice and changing institutions

En no Ozunu, more commonly called En no Gyōja, is revered as Shugendō’s founding ancestor and associated with mountain practice in the seventh century. Tales of his commanding spirits and encountering Zaō Gongen belong to religious tradition. Later communities used them to explain the power of ascetic practice. In 1799 Emperor Kōkaku bestowed the posthumous title Jinben Daibosatsu on him; the imperial document preserved at Shōgoin records that later veneration.

Sacred mountains are associated with buddhas, bodhisattvas and gongen, divine manifestations understood through Buddhist ideas. Shōgoin enshrines Fudō Myōō and Zaō Gongen. Fudō is also closely connected with goma fire rites. Images, recitations and sacred sites give a mountain route a religious meaning for practitioners. Yoshino’s account makes the connection explicit: Kongō Zaō Gongen is understood as a wrathful manifestation of Shaka, the thousand-armed Kannon and Miroku, saving beings across past, present and future. This local religious interpretation connects the gongen to buddhas and bodhisattvas, rather than treating it as an unrelated deity.

Nyūbu means entering a sacred mountain for religious training. The Ōmine tradition includes preparatory practice, an entry rite, religious observances along the route and a concluding exit rite. Sacred stations known as nabiki punctuate the journey. An experienced guide, or sendatsu, directs both the route and its ritual observances.

Peaks, rocks and waterfalls at Ōmine are understood as manifestations of deities. The mountain range is also interpreted through the Womb and Diamond World mandalas, Buddhist arrangements of a sacred universe. Moving between places thus has a religious as well as a geographical sequence. Yoshino’s public account explains four gates: the first marks the resolve to leave ordinary life for practice; the second introduces the demanding mountain route; the later gates signify approaching and reaching awakening.

Goma uses a fire offering to express purification, removal of spiritual obstacles and prayer. In Seitokuin’s outdoor saitō goma account, a wooden altar covered with branches is set alight for worship. Its fire-crossing rite follows after the fire has subsided and carries prayers for well-being. The temple also performs indoor goma, burning prayer sticks received from people seeking health, household safety and other benefits. These are religious interpretations of the offering, rather than physical effects promised by the fire.

Death and rebirth in Haguro’s autumn retreat form a religious sequence. A film presentation at the 2005 international congress of religious studies describes practice recorded in 2003–2004 at the initiative of Shōzenin’s head priest. Before entering the mountain, participants conduct their own symbolic funeral; a conception rite then places them within the mountain understood as a maternal womb. Secluded practice traverses six realms of suffering and four realms approaching enlightenment, together the ten realms. At completion, participants cry out like newborn infants, symbolically returning to human society. Shōzenin’s public account in 2023 likewise connects the retreat centred on Kōtakuji with contributing to others after descending. Funeral, gestation and birth express a religious transformation enacted through practice.

Tsuruoka’s 2020 heritage plan describes a seasonal network at Tōge below Haguro. Lodges maintained ties with particular territories of followers, known as kasumiba. In summer, local guides brought pilgrimage associations to the lodges for vegetarian meals, prayer and purification before mountain guides led the three-mountain pilgrimage. In winter, lodge representatives visited those communities, distributed talismans, prayed and encouraged the next pilgrimage. Accommodation, guidance and religious services sustained a relationship beyond the mountain itself.

Meiji policies separating kami worship from Buddhism transformed the organisation and rituals of many mountain sites. In 1872 the government abolished Shugendō as a separate religious institution and directed practitioners into established Buddhist denominations. The National Archives preserves the order. Temples, personnel and sacred images were reorganised; Shōgoin still houses images entrusted to it by temples closed in that period. The change affected livelihoods at Tōge: Tsuruoka’s plan records lodges closing and some practitioners turning to farming. At Haguro, the former summit centre at Jakkōji became today’s Dewa Sanzan Shrine, while Buddhist institutional functions moved to Kōtakuji and Shōzenin. Separation changed both the ownership of sacred places and the ways people and practices continued.

Haguro’s autumn training is conducted by more than one organisation: the shrine maintains a Shinto form, while the Kōtakuji and Shōzenin tradition continues Buddhist Shugendō. A short experience, devotional participation and formal religious qualification are different forms of involvement. Honzan Shugen-shū’s 2024 institutional account says ordinary devotion requires no registration, whereas applications for sendatsu status or ordination do. Lay teachers may maintain other occupations and participate in transmission activities in their religious capacity.