Yamabushi

[Carlton]

I've been searching high and low for information on the famed mountain warrior monks known as Yamabushi. If anyone could assist me in this endeavor please post. I would love to hear from you.

[don]

Originally posted by Carlton
I've been searching high and low for information on the famed mountain warrior monks known as Yamabushi. If anyone could assist me in this endeavor please post. I would love to hear from you.

Where have you looked and what have you found?

[Carlton]

the most I've found is this website relating the Yamabushis' rituals to that of one of the ten lost tribes of Isreals' ritual.
http://www.moshiach.com/features/tribes/japan.php

Weren't the Yamabushi all slaughtered by Nobunaga or one of the Tokugawa?

Hi all,

Well first of all i dont know what the bible and abraham and israel
have to do with yamabushi but i think thats all a bunch bull to me.
and also the yamabushi were not all slaughterd by nobunaga or tokugawa
i dont see how thats possible do to the fact that it is still practiced today in japan . They are also called shugenja and they practice shugendo and if you have any questions ill try to help you out because my wife's grandfather is a yamabushi priest in fukushima prefecture and i had the chance to ask him some questions about the yamabushi.
feel free to ask .
hope this this helps.

Tom Karazozis
Shumpukan Dojo
Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu

[Carlton]

Thanks Igarashi.T
Thank you for the two terms. This helps very much.

[don]

Originally posted by Igarashi.T
[b]Well first of all i dont know what the bible and abraham and israel
have to do with yamabushi but i think thats all a bunch bull to me.

It strikes me as funny, too. John Stevens makes such wild associations a practice, though.

and also the yamabushi were not all slaughterd by nobunaga or tokugawa
i dont see how thats possible do to the fact that it is still practiced today in japan .

Don't know about the slaughter, but they were outlawed in Meiji.

YAMABUSHI are the practitioners; the pracice is called SHUGENDO. I'm not sure that warrior is quite the right reference. SHUGENDO is a practice combining elements of esoteric Buddhism, Kami worship (now called Shinto), and shamanism/asceticism. It's reputed founder, En No Gyoja or En the 'ascetic', was a monk of the Shingon school. Do web searches on these terms.

Carmen Blacker's The Catalpa Bow has extensive information on it; she even accompanied ascetics on their trips into the mountains and comments that the practice is declining in vitality and rigor (she was writing in 1975). Also, check Helen Hardacre, The Journal of Japanese Studies, Monumenta Nipponica, and The Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (full text available on the web for this last one.)

Good luck.

[Guy LeSieur]

M. Carlton,

As mentioned by M. Modesto you can find in the «Japanese Journal of Religious Studies» a special number which deals exclusively with Shugendô (1989 Special Issue): http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/.../jjrs/jjrs.htm
The following link will also fill you in in the modern practice of Shugendô in one of their most important site Dewa san In North Western Japan: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tok...ntravelinc.htm

Hope this will help your search,

[Carlton]

Awesome! Thanks for the help. I appreciate it very much.

[Soulend]

'Yamabushi' also refers to the warriors of Koya-san, a mountain in Kii, also called Takanoyama. It is famous for its numerous Buddhist temples connected with Shingon Buddhism.

The "warrior monks" nearly destroyed by Oda Nobunaga on Mt. Hiei in 1571 were connected to the Tendai sect.

[roninseb]

Originally posted by don

Don't know about the slaughter, but they were outlawed in Meiji.

Can you tell me where you got the information and how and on what motives they were banned in the Meiji era since I was under the impression that only the Komuso (Fuke sect) were banned during the Meiji era and that Shintoism was in some parts reformed. What I suspect is that they were only prohibited to wear swords and try to enforce any old rules relating to the bakufu.


Truly yours

[Mekugi]

Originally posted by Carlton
I've been searching high and low for information on the famed mountain warrior monks known as Yamabushi. If anyone could assist me in this endeavor please post. I would love to hear from you.

Yamabushi does NOT mean "mountain warrior"- no-no-no. The kanji ŽR•š means "to lay down in the mountains". One definition is a person who goes on a short pilgrimage for shugendo (as mentioned). There are several different ways to practice shugendo (sometimes with misogi)- so your results will vary.
The term also refers to a type of monk from an old religious sect who trains in the mountains- it has pretty much NOTHING to do with "being a warrior" although it could be said that many "warriors" took refuge as Yamabushi. However, the popular mythology, manga and movies get the facts a little skewed; for instance Yamabushi were sometimes thought to be tengu, and are represented in folk art masks as men with long noses, or vice-versa if you like. So the yamabushi were tengu as well as ninja, devils, warrior monks, gods, etc., etc.

Here are some pictures of a group from the latter description

http://www2.dokidoki.ne.jp/tomura/goma.htm

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ma6t-nsd.../20000702.html

check it out.

Always,

[don]

Originally posted by roninseb
Can you tell me where you got the information and how and on what motives they were banned in the Meiji era since I was under the impression that only the Komuso (Fuke sect) were banned during the Meiji era and that Shintoism was in some parts reformed. What I suspect is that they were only prohibited to wear swords and try to enforce any old rules relating to the bakufu.

Hmmm. I think it may have been Hardacre in her Shinto and State. But Blacker probably mentions it in the book cited above, too. Been several months since I read either. There was much tumult in religion with The Great Promulgation Campaign. Buddhism was suppressed, shrines were "merged" (i.e., destroyed until a number small enough to be managed by the state was reached), and Shugendo prohibited (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...gn%22+hardacre).