This Yamabushi Brought Me To Tears
A story from yamabushi training
Kia ora Koutou, Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi here bringing you concepts, life advice, and hiking guides straight from the mountains of Japan.
Now, I’m not really supposed to share this. I’ve been sworn to secrecy for our yamabushi trainings. However, in this case, I don’t give away too much, and a lot of this happened after the training. Plus, there was an important life lesson in it I think you will enjoy.
This Yamabushi Brought Me To Tears
Once we were back on solid ground, in the confines of Myokoin pilgrim’s lodge, an unsuspecting first-time yamabushi probably in his mid-40s came up to me.
That was when he told me.
Picture this.
We were standing atop a sheer cliff face staring down at a mountain valley flanked either side by steep green peaks shrouded in thin white clouds. The swiftly flowing river below meandered off into the distance where, in the middle of the expansive deep blue sky, we were met with the mighty Mt. Gassan, lofty and proud as ever.
We had just spent the better part of three hours walking along a forest path of never-ending hairpin turns, down a steep rocky slope to a gushing river we promptly forded, through thick bush on muddy ground, and up a river for, oh about another hour or so. And only then did we reach the trailhead to immediately clamber upon tree after tree after tree to reach the top of the cliff.
There we were.
Staring out onto Mt. Gassan as it towered in the sky. No signs of other human life. No power pylons. No dams. None of the concrete barriers you so often see in the Japanese wilderness. No, we were about as far away from society as you could get in the mountains of Japan.
And so we did what we always do.
Or at least, those of us from Daishobo pilgrim’s lodge did.
I busted out my best rendition of Kiwi Yamabushi on the conch, and together with the yamabushi of Daishobo,
We prayed The Heart Sutra.
The Heart Sutra is but one part of Daishobo’s prayers that combine Shinto, Buddhist, and Haguro Shugen elements. Either way, if you’re doing a Shinto Akinomine ritual, chances are you are not going to chant a Buddhist chant like The Heart Sutra.
But we did.
Which is what got to him.
Yamabushi training takes you to the deepest confines of your mind. It pushes you mentally in ways unlike anything else, and it brings back memories of times long gone.
In other words, besides simply being a physically demanding feat, yamabushi training is an intensely emotionally-charged experience. One that only those who have completed it can attest to.
And this time was Emotional.
That unsuspecting first-time yamabushi from earlier? Well, after the training ended he personally came up to me to thank me. There was a reason he had joined the yamabushi training, a good one at that.
You see, in the past year, he had lost his wife. This training was his commemoration to her.
After he heard the conch, and to top if off The Heart Sutra, it was all too much for him. The whole return journey down the mountain he was in tears. He felt he had succeeded in doing what he needed to do, saying goodbye to his wife in one of the most Japanese ways imaginable.
We were just doing what we always did. Praying to the deities, and of course for the souls of the deceased. We didn’t realise how much of an impact it would have on the people there with us.
Until then.
The impact was bigger than I could ever imagine.
Words cannot contain the emotions I feel when I think about the people close to me who I have lost. I could not imagine how my fellow yamabushi felt in that moment. These thoughts alone brought more than a few tears to my eyes.
Sometimes simply doing what you do can have innumerable implications on the lives of others. For yamabushi, I always felt this was true.
This just proved it.
Live true to yourself. The impact on your world is phenomenal to say the least.
But the impact on others’?
Watch this on repeat. Thank me later.
Daily Yamabushi for this Week
It seems I did have a malfunction of sorts this week. One or two of the blog posts didn’t publish as expected. Don’t worry, you can read them all for free now at timbunting.com/blog.
Daily Yamabushi for this week:
Mountains of Wisdom: Tell Your Mum!
Thanks for reading! If you think your mum would enjoy this, go ahead and share it with her!
Better yet, refer her and two of her friends to get a free month membership!
As always, get more content on the little-known side of Japan and Japanese culture on my blog, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Threads.
And for those of you who haven’t:
Ka kite ano.
Tim.
Beautiful. Hope the Akinomine was successful and fulfilling for yourself and the community this year!