(Literally: "One who lies/hides in the mountains") are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits with a long tradition as mighty warriors endowed with supernatural powers. They follow the
Shugendōis an ancient Japanese religion in which enlightenment or oneness with kami is obtained through the study of the relationship between Man and Nature. Shugendō literally means "the path of training and testing." It centers on an ascetic, mountain-dwelling lifestyle and incorporates teachings from...
doctrine, an integration of mainly esoteric
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
of the Shingon sect,
Tendaiis a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
and
Shintoor kami-no-michi is the natural spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. The word Shinto was adopted from the written Chinese , combining two kanji: , meaning gods or spirits ; and , or "do" meaning a philosophical path or study...
elements. For the most part solitary, they did form loose confederations, and associations with certain temples, and also participated in battles and skirmishes alongside
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
and
sōheiwere Buddhist warrior monks of feudal Japan. At certain points of history they held considerable power, obliging the imperial and military governments to collaborate....
on occasion.
(Literally: "One who lies/hides in the mountains") are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits with a long tradition as mighty warriors endowed with supernatural powers. They follow the
Shugendōis an ancient Japanese religion in which enlightenment or oneness with kami is obtained through the study of the relationship between Man and Nature. Shugendō literally means "the path of training and testing." It centers on an ascetic, mountain-dwelling lifestyle and incorporates teachings from...
doctrine, an integration of mainly esoteric
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
of the Shingon sect,
Tendaiis a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
and
Shintoor kami-no-michi is the natural spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. The word Shinto was adopted from the written Chinese , combining two kanji: , meaning gods or spirits ; and , or "do" meaning a philosophical path or study...
elements. For the most part solitary, they did form loose confederations, and associations with certain temples, and also participated in battles and skirmishes alongside
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
and
sōheiwere Buddhist warrior monks of feudal Japan. At certain points of history they held considerable power, obliging the imperial and military governments to collaborate....
on occasion. Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yamabito, Yamaōshi,and some
hijiri of the eighth and ninth centuries.
Also cross-teaching with Samurai's weaponry and Yamabushi's spiritual approach to life and fighting.
In modern use, the term
ubasoku-yamabushi refers to laymen practitioners of shugendō. The religion places a heavy emphasis on asceticism and feats of endurance, and white & saffron-robed
yamabushi toting a
horagaiThe conch shell, blown as a trumpet, served a number of purposes in Japanese history. It is called ', ', or a number of other names in Japanese depending on its function....
conch-shell trumpet are still a common sight near the shugendō holy site of Dewa Sanzan and in the sacred mountains of Kumano and Omine.
History
Yamabushi began as
yamahoshi, isolated clusters (or individuals) of mountain hermits, ascetics, and "holy men", who followed the path of
shugendō, a search for spiritual, mystical, or supernatural powers gained through asceticism. This path may or may not have had a founder, as the myths surrounding
En no GyojaEn no Gyōja , or En no Ozunu , born 634, was a Japanese ascetic and mystic, traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendō, a syncretic religion incorporating aspects of Taoism, Shinto, esoteric Buddhism and traditional Japanese shamanism...
are numerous and complex; he is quite similar to a Japanese Merlin in this way. Men who followed this path came to be known by a variety of names, including
kenja,
kenza, and
shugenjaShugenja were the 7th century practitioners of the Japanese religion of Shugendō. They were sometimes known as yamabushi, incorrectly translated as "mountain warriors", "warrior priests", "bandit monks", etc., though warrior priests or warrior monks are correctly termed sōhei in...
. These mountain mystics came to be renowned for their magical abilities and
occultThe word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
knowledge, and were sought out as healers or mediums, although Shinto shrines had traditionally reserved this role exclusively for maidens known as
Mikois a Japanese term that anciently meant a "female shaman, spirit medium" who conveyed oracles from kami , and presently means a "shrine maiden; virgin consecrated to a deity" who serves at Shinto shrines.-Word:...
.
Most of these ascetics, in addition to their devotion to
shugendō, studied the teachings of the
Tendaiis a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...
sect of Buddhism, or the Shingon sect, established by
Kōbō DaishiKūkai , also known posthumously as , 774–835, was a Japanese monk, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism...
in the 8th century. Shingon Buddhism was one of the primary sects of
mikkyo (密教) or Esoteric Buddhism, according to which enlightenment is found through isolation, and the study and contemplation of oneself, as well as nature, and esoteric images called
mandalaMandala is a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism...
. Both the Shingon sect and the Tendai viewed mountains as the ideal place for this sort of isolation and contemplation of nature.
In their mountain retreats, these monks studied not only nature and religious/spiritual texts and images, but also a variety of martial arts. Whether they felt they had to defend themselves from bandits, other monks, or samurai armies is questionable, but the idea of studying martial arts as a means to improve oneself mentally and spiritually, not just physically, has always been central to Japanese culture, beyond the specific tenets of one religious sect or another. Thus, like the
sōhei, the
yamabushi became warriors as well as monks.
As their reputation for mystical insight and knowledge grew, and their organization grew tighter, many of the masters of the ascetic disciplines began to be appointed to high spiritual positions in the court hierarchy. Monks and temples began to gain political influence. By the
Nanboku-choThe , spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Muromachi bakufu of Japan's history.During this period, there existed a Northern Imperial Court, established by Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto, and a Southern Imperial Court, established by Emperor Go-Daigo in...
Period, in the 13th and 14th centuries, the
yamabushi had formed organized cohorts called
konsha, and these
konsha, along with
sōhei and other monks began to take direction from the central temples of their sects. They assisted
Emperor Go-DaigoEmperor Go-Daigo was the 96th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
in his attempts to overthrow the
Kamakura shogunateThe Kamakura shogunate was a feudal military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura...
, and proved their warrior skills to be up to the challenge of fighting professional
samurai armies.
Several centuries later, in the
Sengoku PeriodThe was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict in Japan that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century....
,
yamabushi could be found among the advisers and armies of nearly every major contender for dominion over
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Some, led by
Takeda Shingen' of Kai Province was a preeminent daimyo in feudal Japan with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period.-Name:...
, aided
Oda Nobunaga was a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo with land holdings in Owari province. Nobunaga lived a life of continuous military conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japanese daimyo before his death in 1582...
against
Uesugi Kenshinwas a daimyo who ruled Echigo province in the Sengoku period of Japan.He was one of the many powerful lords of the Sengoku period. He is famed for his prowess on the battlefield, the legendary rivalry with Takeda Shingen, his military expertise, strategy and his belief in the god of war —...
in 1568, while others, including the abbot
Sessai Choro', also known as Taigen Sessai, was a Japanese abbot and mountain ascetic . He was the uncle of Imagawa Yoshimoto, and served him as military advisor and as commander of Imagawa's forces, despite his lack of any formal battle training or experience.Sessai aided his nephew in consolidating the...
, advised
Tokugawa Ieyasu
. Many fought alongside their fellow monks, the
Ikkō-ikki', literally "single-minded leagues", were mobs of peasant farmers, monks, Shinto priests and local nobles, who rose up against samurai rule in 15th to 16th century Japan. They followed the beliefs of the Jōdo Shinshu sect of Buddhism which taught that all believers are equally saved by Amida...
, against
Nobunaga was a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo with land holdings in Owari province. Nobunaga lived a life of continuous military conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japanese daimyo before his death in 1582...
, who eventually crushed them and put an end to the time of the warrior monks.
Yamabushi also served as
sendatsu, or spiritual mountain guides, since medieval times for pilgrims along the
Kumano KodoThe ' is a series of ancient pilgrimage routes that crisscross the Kii Hantō, the largest Peninsula of Japan. These sacred trails were and are still used for the pilgrimage to the sacred site "Kumano Sanzan" The ' is a series of ancient pilgrimage routes that crisscross the Kii Hantō, the largest...
to the Kumano Sanzan, including retired emperors and aristocrats.
External links