Shugendō

Shugendō is a Japanese ascetic tradition in which practitioners cultivate spiritual power through mountain worship, Buddhist practices, and elements of Shinto and other religions.

Yamabushi: Yamabushi are practitioners of Shugendō who undertake ascetic training, often in mountains. They embody the tradition through pilgrimage, ritual, and austerities.
En no Gyōja: En no Gyōja is a legendary Japanese ascetic traditionally regarded as the founder of Shugendō. Later Shugendō lineages traced their origins and authority to his mountain practice.
Kūkai: Kūkai was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded the Shingon school in the early ninth century. Shingon teachings and sacred geography influenced major Shugendō centers.
Shinbutsu bunri: Shinbutsu bunri was the Meiji-era policy separating Shinto institutions and kami worship from Buddhism. The separation dismantled many Buddhist-kami institutions that had sustained Shugendō.
Shinto: Shinto is a Japanese religious tradition centered on kami worship, ritual purity, and shrine practices. Shugendō incorporates kami worship but also draws extensively on Buddhist institutions and doctrine.
Kaihōgyō: Kaihōgyō is an intensive Tendai Buddhist mountain practice involving repeated circuits around Mount Hiei. Its demanding mountain circuits exemplify ascetic discipline associated with Shugendō.
Mountain worship in Japan: Mountain worship in Japan is the veneration of mountains as sacred places and sources of spiritual power. Shugendō developed from older traditions that treated mountains as realms of deities and spirits.
Saichō: Saichō was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded the Tendai school and Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei. Tendai’s mountain institution became one source of Shugendō practice and authority.
Haibutsu kishaku: Haibutsu kishaku was the anti-Buddhist movement that destroyed Buddhist temples, images, and institutions in early Meiji Japan. Its campaigns intensified the disruption of Shugendō communities and sacred sites.
Japanese Buddhism: Japanese Buddhism comprises Buddhist schools and practices that developed in Japan from the sixth century onward. Shugendō overlaps with Buddhist institutions while remaining a distinctive mountain-based tradition.

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