Tim Bunting - Kiwi Yamabushi
Kia ora koutou.
Ko Pukeatua te maunga.
Ko Te Awa Kairangi te awa.
He Yamabushi ahau nō Aotearoa.
I whakangungu ahau ki ngā maunga o Nipono.
Ko Tim tōku ingoa.
Pukeatua is my mountain.
Te Awa Kairangi my river.
I am a Yamabushi from Aotearoa New Zealand.
I train on the mountains of Japan.
I am Tim.
My Story
I am a bilingual yamabushi (mountain ascetic) from New Zealand living in Sakata, Yamagata, Japan.
I help run yamabushi shugyo (training) for English speakers with Yamabushido.
Kiwi Yamabushi Newsletter
In my spare time I introduce aspects of Japan and Japanese culture I have come across since I moved to Yamagata in 2010.
This Newsletter’s Origin Story
Ten years ago my Dad died. It was completely out of the blue, the doctor was surprised,
and so were we.
Then, a friend sent me a podcast episode with Brene Brown on it. It was the Tim Ferriss podcast. To be honest, I don’t remember much about the episode at all, just that it was about grief.
It’s weird how easy we dismiss things given to you by people who haven’t experienced them, because listening back that episode is full of gems for people in my situation, but the best thing about my friend sending me that podcast was that it sent me on a bit of a Tim Ferriss podcast frenzy.
Which is cool and all,
and that eventually led me to a man by the name of Seth Godin. I was so enamoured by Seth that I stopped what I was doing, and bought all of his books.
I’d never done that before,
not even for Master Hoshino (despite the fact he only had one when I met him).
I love the way Seth is able to so eloquently express his ideas, ideas that are very good, by the way.
Seth says the key to his success has been his daily blog.
I wouldn’t put it past him.
That was all the inspiration I needed to start my own daily blog, way back in January of 2019.
Well,
I’m still at it.
I wouldn’t say it’s any good, although I do think I have improved. Both in the ideas, and the way I express them.
Then in late 2022, I decided to send these Daily Yamabushi posts (as I now call them) in a weekly newsletter. I first used Ghost.org, but now I use Substack. If you were there from the start, which a few of you were (I was collecting your emails on my website), you would know that things were quite a bit different.
Here is my first Substack post:
Ok, not that different,
but different nonetheless.
To be honest though, I had zero intention of writing articles like the ones you get. I just wanted to share the Daily Yamabushi posts.
But I realised that people like reading these things, that they are what Substack1 is built for, even though the articles range from ancient mountain wisdom to… umm…
Why Axolotls are called ‘Wooper Looper’ in Japanese.
I experimented with a few formats, and eventually stuck with what you have now.
So thanks,
I guess,
Dad.
Here are my top ten posts for 2025:
Besides this newsletter I write a blog every day, and when I can, I make videos about little-known aspects of Japan and Japanese culture. Right now I’m on a mission to summit and document the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata.
Here is a round-up of my Daily Yamabushi posts for 2025
And here are some of my most popular articles:
What does it mean to be ‘Spirited Away’?
Why is this Buddha EVERYWHERE in Japan?
The MONSTROSITY that is Tokyo Banana
The Badass Fudomyo’o: Your new Favourite Buddhist Deity
I work a few jobs to support my family and do this in any spare time I can make. If you like what you see and can afford it, supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber means you can get much more. Paid subscribers get access to the whole archive of my posts (over 100!) as well as priority access to new articles and videos when they come.
Free subscribers get the most recent posts and can look forward to a weekly update from me. I aim to send this out every Friday JST, so don’t forget to check your inbox then, or check out the most recent posts and archives here.
You can follow me on Medium, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter, or LinkedIn (all @kiwiyamabushi).
