What Is Shugendō?

Gen is the efficacy that comes when practice bears fruit. It is the gen of the phrase reigen arataka, "of manifest miraculous power." In the language of esoteric Buddhism it is called siddhi (shitsuji, accomplishment), and it arises from practice done according to the correct rite (nyohō).

Shitsuji corresponds to the Sanskrit siddhi and refers to the fruit that practice bears. The name shugen itself pairs the two: shu means practice, and gen its fruit. The Mahāvairocana Sutra (Dainichi-kyō) explains that mantra practice brings forth siddhi with a simile: turn your face to a mirror, and your face will surely appear in it.

Shingon teaching understands this siddhi in two tiers. One is the efficacy the practitioner shows in this world (jimyō shitsuji, the siddhi of mantra-holding; jimyō means one who holds the mantra): the working that heals illness and wards off calamity. The other is becoming a buddha in this very body (hōbutsu shitsuji, the siddhi of the Dharma Buddha). This is sokushin jōbutsu, and here lies the ultimate form of gen. Forming mudrās with the hands, chanting mantras with the mouth, and setting the mind on the Buddha are together called the Three Mysteries (sanmitsu). When this practice resonates with the working of the Buddha, gen arises, the teaching says.

Many stories of wondrous power are told about En no Gyōja. He is said to have commanded demon-spirits at will, to have kept two demons, Zenki and Goki, in his service, and to have bound Hitokotonushi, the deity of Katsuragi, with a spell. The story of Hitokotonushi appears in the Nihon ryōiki, a collection of tales from the early Heian period; Zenki and Goki appear in the engi (histories of temples and shrines) of later times. In 1799 (Kansei 11), in the Edo period, Emperor Kōkaku bestowed on him the title Jinben Daibosatsu (Great Bodhisattva of Wondrous Working).

The official national history Shoku Nihongi also records En no Gyōja, in its entry for the third year of Emperor Monmu (699). It states that Ozunu, a man known for his spells, was exiled to the island of Izu on a slanderous charge, an accusation that twisted the truth to bring him down.

Tosō means shaking off the dust of the defilements (bonnō, the delusions that disturb the mind). It was originally the same word as zuda (dhūta), the discipline of casting off attachment to clothing, food, and shelter. Going into the mountains, standing under waterfalls, and walking on with sleep and food cut to a minimum: this walking itself becomes a practice of shaking the dust from the mind.

At the heart of the peak entry is the idea of ritual death and rebirth (gishi saisei): the everyday self dies once, is held in the womb of the mountain, and is born anew. On the Dewa Sanzan, the three mountains of Dewa, a funeral rite that treats the practitioner as one of the dead is held before entering the mountains, and the peaks are walked as a "journey of rebirth" through Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan, and Mount Yudono. Tainai-kuguri, crawling through a rock cave shaped like a womb, also comes from this idea of death and rebirth.

In the mountains, each practice is assigned to one of the ten realms (jikkai), the ten states of existence from the hells up to buddhahood, and all ten are cultivated in one's own body. This is called the practice of the ten realms. The best known is the Nishi no Nozoki (Western Peering) on Mount Ōmine. Held by a lifeline, the practitioner leans the upper body out over a cliff and chants "Sange, sange, rokkon shōjō" (Repentance, repentance; may the six senses be pure). It is a practice of shashin, offering one's body to the Buddha. The Ōmine Okugake-michi, which crosses the ridges from Yoshino to Kumano, is a peak-entry route registered as a World Heritage Site.

It was on Ōmine that En no Gyōja is said to have perceived Zaō Gongen at the end of his prayers. Zaō Gongen is regarded as a deity born in the mountains of Japan. With a wrathful face, one leg raised high, and flames at his back, he shows the power to crush delusion. He is the representative deity of Shugendō.

The tokin on the forehead is said to represent the jeweled crown of Mahāvairocana (Dainichi Nyorai). The oi carried on the back is likened to the mother's womb that holds the practitioner in the peaks. The kongōzue staff in the hand is regarded as the Dharma body (hosshin, the Buddha himself beyond all form) of Mahāvairocana, and when holding the staff the practitioner is said to contemplate, "I am Mahāvairocana."

The iratoka rosary at the waist is likened to the sword of wisdom that shatters the defilements. The yuigesa worn over the shoulders is regarded as a sign that the ten realms are contained in one's body. And the sound of the conch is likened to the preaching of Śākyamuni Buddha (Shaka Nyorai).

The yamabushi walk the peaks wearing these robes and implements. To wear them, it is said, is to clothe oneself in the teaching.

It is a great goma performed on an altar built in the open, with brushwood and firewood stacked up, praying for peace in the land and abundant harvests. In the Shingon tradition, it is said to have first been performed by Rigen Daishi Shōbō, who founded Daigoji. Its principal deity is Acala (Fudō Myōō). In Japanese, one speaks of "performing" (shusuru) the goma and "kindling" (tomosu) its fire. This is because the fire of the goma is the fire of wisdom (chika) that burns away the defilements, distinct from the fire of the non-Buddhist paths (gedō).

The fire of wisdom of Acala burns away the fundamental delusion (mumyō) of all beings. The practice of becoming one with this fire is kashō zanmai, the samādhi of arising fire. It is taught as a contemplation in which the practitioner visualizes himself as Acala and abides within a wheel of fire. Hiwatari, walking barefoot over the hot ash of a burnt-out fire, is also likened to this kashō zanmai. It has been handed down in Shugendō as a practice of becoming one with Acala and burning away the defilements.

The scriptures tell many stories of marvels (jinpen, superhuman feats such as flying through the air). Yet Śākyamuni strongly disliked showing marvels before others. Even when a marvel is shown, a doubter will decide, "He is only doing it with a charm," so it cannot become a sure sign that awakens faith. This teaching survives both in the Pāli canon, handed down in an ancient Indian language, and in its Chinese counterpart, the Kengo-kyō (Kevaṭṭa Sutta) of the Dīrgha Āgama.

What Śākyamuni valued above marvels was the working of the teaching itself, which surely turns the human heart toward good (the wonder of instruction, kyōkai shidō). In the monastic rules this warning became an explicit prohibition, the treatises explained its reasons, and it was carried on into the rites of esoteric Buddhism.

In the Heian period, esoteric monks known for the efficacy of their kaji prayers were called genza. At request they went to the court to pray for the healing of illness and to subdue malevolent spirits. The Pillow Book and the Konjaku monogatari portray genza praying until the sweat ran. From these genza arose people who honed the power of gen through practice in the mountains, and through the medieval period Shugendō took shape as a distinct path.

Shugendō in time divided into two great streams: the Tōzan-ha, grounded in Shingon esotericism and based at Sanbōin of Daigoji, and the Honzan-ha, of the Tendai line and based at Shōgoin. Though their lineages differed, both placed the core of gen in the siddhi and kaji of esoteric Buddhism.

In 1872 (Meiji 5), a decree of the Grand Council of State (dajōkan fudatsu, a government ordinance) abolished the Shugen school and ordered its members to join the Shingon and Tendai schools. In practice, Tōzan-ha practitioners went into the Shingon school and Honzan-ha practitioners into the Tendai school. Their lineages are carried on today by the Daigo branch of Shingon Buddhism, the Honzan Shugen school, and others.

Shugendō is a path of practice that makes the mountain itself its training ground. Practitioners go into the sacred peaks, walk on with sleep and food cut to a minimum, perform the saitō goma, and lean out over cliffs. Through this practice of the peak entry, the everyday self dies once and is born anew.

The fruit that practice (shu) bears when it ripens is called gen. Gen is an accomplishment born of practice done according to the correct rite, and its ultimate form is sokushin jōbutsu, becoming a buddha in this very body.

Showing off gen before others has been warned against since the time of Śākyamuni. The practitioner born anew in the peaks turns that body toward the work of saving others.

Even without entering the mountains, the prayers of joining one's palms each day, visiting temples, and remembering those who have passed are connected to the path of Shugendō.