Short description: Japanese mountain ascetic hermits
Lua error in Module:Lang/utilities at line 268: attempt to call field '_transl' (a nil value). are Japanese mountain ascetichermits.[1] They are generally part of the syncretic shugendō religion, which includes Tantric Buddhist, Shinto, and Japanese Taoist elements.[2]
Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some hijiri (聖) (saints or holy persons) of the eighth and ninth centuries.[3]
According to American writer Frederik L. Schodt:
These positively medieval-looking nature worshipers carry metal staves and conch shells and wear straw sandals and sometimes a hemp cloth over-robe with the Heart Sutra written on it. They follow a mixture of esoteric or tantric Buddhism mixed with Shinto, the native animistic religion of Japan.[4]
↑Nelson, Andrew Nathaniel (1995). The Original Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Classic ed.). Rutland, Vermont: C. E. Tuttle Co.. pp. 134, 346. ISBN9780804819657.
↑Blacker, Carmen (1999). The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan (3rd ed.). Richmond, Virginia: Japan Library. pp. 165–167. ISBN1873410859.
↑Schodt, Frederik L. (2020). My Heart Sutra. Berkeley (Ca): Stone Bridge Press. ISBN978-1-61172-062-4.