5 Japanese mountain practices to change your life
And some updates for you!
Kia ora koutou. Tim Bunting the Kiwi Yamabushi here bringing you concepts, life advice, and hiking guides from the Japanese mountains.
I hope that 2022 has been a fruitful year for you. For me, I climbed 12 mountains on the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata list, and discovered much more about Yamagata Prefecture that I could ever have imagined.
And it only ever gets deeper!
The more and more I learn about this place, the more intriguing it gets.
Why just yesterday I was translating the Shiro-yama page. Yamagata is famous for Yamadera, which directly translates to ‘Mountain Temple’. Shiro-yama directly translates to ‘Castle Mountain’.
And what a castle this was! It was a pivotal location in The Siege of Hasedo, which has been called Dewa Province’s Battle of Sekigahara. Or in plain English, a huge battle of legendary proportions at a castle in lowly Yamagata City equivalent to Japan’s most famous battle ever.
That’s but one of the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata.
I’m slowly working my way through translating a hiking guide for each of the mountains. So far I have climbed a total of 29 mountains with 29 feature-length articles, and 39 hiking guides are now up on the website.
I’m hoping to finish the last 32 hiking guides ASAP, but before that, I’ve been putting together some feature articles, a few you will see here. I’ve also been working in the background to make my mountains articles easier to navigate.
More on that to come.
What I’m Reading:
‘Fool, blind, conceited idiot I was! Why did I fail to recognize the Yamaboosi’s power, and that the peace of my whole life was departing with him, from that moment for ever.’
This week, I was pleasantly surprised to get a message from a reader who told me my story about enlightened people reminded him of a story he had read long ago.
It was a story about Yamabushi from 1885! I don’t think that’s when he read it though.
Either way, here it is.
Videos!
I recently featured in a video for The Prime Minister of Japan’s Office. Just today it passed 500k views! Check it out and let me know what you think.
Also, in case you missed it, here’s a video I made last week about lessons from yamabushi training I use in my everyday life (also the first post of this week).
Here are my posts for the week of December 22-29, 2022:
5 Japanese mountain practices to change your life
I’ve been a yamabushi (mountain ascetic) since 2017. In Shugyo, yamabushi training, we do a number of rituals and different practices that have huge impacts on our lives. The thing is, we are sworn to secrecy. We aren’t allowed to share the details of what goes on.
Why you should always put the team first.Â
The greatest ever sportsman was an Australian named Donald Bradman.Â
The greatest ever cricketer, Don Bradman, was also the greatest ever sportsperson.Â
Ever. Â
‘Are there any enlightened people?’ — What a Zen monk told me.
Turns out there are.
I once asked a Zen monk whether there were any people who were enlightened. He told me there were millions, hundreds of millions, even.
Someone who is enlightened is living in the now. They are living entirely on instinct. They are doing what they want to do, when they want to do it.Â
The guaranteed way to grow
Always give your best, no matter where you are on the ladder. This is especially true if you’re near the bottom. Anything else, and you miss valuable opportunities to develop and grow.Â
Hiking Guide: Mountains of The Shonai Region of Yamagata
Municipalities of The Shonai Region
The Shonai Region is in the north-west of Yamagata Prefecture, adjacent the Mogami and Murayama Regions. There are five municipalities in Shonai; from north to south Yuza Town, Sakata City, Shonai Town, Mikawa Town, and Tsuruoka City. Mikawa Town is the only one of these not to have any mountains.
Let nature be the teacher
All lessons come from nature.Â
All lessons come from nature. Anything else is someone’s interpretation of a lesson from nature.Â
Three best mountains to hike in 2023
Made of mountains, the literal meaning of Yamagata. When you live here, the namesake practically hits you in the face. The place is simply surrounded by mountains at every turn. From the Fuji of North Japan, Chokai-san, to the tiny Kashiwagi-yama on Tobishima Island, or the heights of Zao-san, Yamagata Prefecture sure does have some fun places to explore.
And that’s it for this week!
Thanks for reading this far. As always, feel free to unsubscribe if this isn’t what you’re after. If it is, and you think someone else would enjoy it, please consider sharing it with them, a sort of late Christmas present, so to speak.
Ka kite ano.
Tim.