Uketamo and What The Mountains Teach You
Stop for a moment to be in the moment
Kia ora koutou. Tim Bunting the Kiwi Yamabushi here bringing you concepts, life advice, and hiking guides from the Japanese mountains.
Once is never enough.Â
What’s a yamabushi? Go look it up.Â
I’m what’s called a Yamabushi. The closest thing in English is a mountain ascetic. To be able to call yourself a Yamabushi, you need to have undertaken a Yamabushi training (called Shugyo). In our case that could be the weeklong Autumn’s Peak Ritual at the end of August, or for women, the Miko Shugyo at the beginning of September.Â
Of course, once is never enough. But it is enough to be called a Yamabushi.Â
And once you do it you understand…
Yamabushi training is powerful stuff.Â
It’s so powerful, in fact, there’s not a moment in your life you can’t apply it to.Â
That’s because living in the moment is one of the main things we practice.Â
I’ve said it before, but it’s impossible to not be in the moment when you’re walking on a precarious snow bank through thick fog for hundreds of metres on end. The only thing to stop you sliding down into the abyss, like I’ve seen Yamabushi sticks do on multiple occasions, is a thin rope.Â
Or your ability to balance.Â
Similarly, when you’re out hiking at night with only the faint moonlight filtering through the pitch black forest and your stick to guide you, your only choice is to be present in the moment.Â
Let your brain wander, and you could easily end up like the aforementioned stick.Â
Yamabushi training reminds you that the current situation, and you being in it, are all that exist. In these moments, we are constantly reassessing the situation. We are constantly awake, we are constantly alive.Â
We are constantly being
Whenever I feel anxious, overwhelmed, or need a reminder to wake up, I think back to these moments in my training. I stop to reassess the situation. I stop for a moment to simply be in the moment.
We can try it right now.Â
Let your attention move to your breath, to your weight in the chair or your feet on the ground. Feel the temperature of the air on your face, the texture of the device you are holding, the sights, the smells, the sounds. Remind yourself that you are in a fleeting moment there to be enjoyed.Â
Then snap back to reality with a fresh mind.Â
It’s an amazing feeling, enough to get high on without any substances. And it all begins by simply being out in nature, too.Â
Well, there’s a little more to it than that
Yamabushi practice Shugendo, the path or way of gaining supernatural powers through ascetic practice.Â
Supernatural powers.Â
The Shugendo we practice on the Dewa Sanzan mountains here in Yamagata is called Haguro Shugendo. Haguro Shugendo has a powerful object of study and philosophy called Uketamo.Â
Oo-keh-tah-moh
Even the sound of it is enough to bring chills up your spine.Â
Translated simply as ’I accept’, Uketamo is a living, breathing, philosophy and practice. You learn Uketamo by training out in nature in the ways of Haguro Shugendo.Â
Uketamo is what you do when you need a reminder to be in the moment.Â
It’s what you do when you’re under a waterfall and the weight of the water is crushing down on you.Â
Uketamo is what you do when you’re oddly overcome with tears in the middle of Yamabushi training (true story). When life gets overwhelmingly thrown at you, when you have to deal with feelings you have never felt before, when things don’t go your way, you know what to do.
Uketamo is accepting your place in the world, accepting your current self for who you are, warts and all, and about knowing that in a lot of situations, for better or worse, it’s all you can do.Â
And more importantly, it is all you need.Â
(Also importantly, Uketamo is not what you do when you injure yourself, that’s when you tell your master. Uketamo is not persevering for the sake of it, it’s not a competition. Last, Uketamo is not simply accepting other people’s agenda. Nature’s agenda, yes, other people, not so much. Use Uketamo to reflect on these things, but not just to accept them)
Mountains are the Refrigerator
A few weeks back I found this article about Dewaya, a Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn) in Nishikawa on the other side of Mt. Gassan in inland Yamagata Prefecture. I’ve been to Dewaya a few times over the years, even going foraging for mushrooms with them, and let me tell you, this is a special place.
Not only is the cooking itself delicious and innovative, last time they served part of the meal on a shovel.
The article gives a really good overview of how Chef Haruki Sato has gone about reinventing Sansai (mountain vegetable) cuisine. I’ll always remember the time he told me the mountains are a huge refrigerator. As the snow gradually melts, all manner of mountain vegetables sprout up, which for Haruki is all the inspiration he needs. I consider Chef Sato to be at the forefront of mountain vegetable cuisine, a form of cuisine that could have existed for over 1,000 years (article I wrote).
If you want a unique culinary experience in Japan, I can’t think of a better place (wondertrunk & co even have a Mountain Harvest Tour including Dewaya).
This Week on The Blog
Read my blog at timbunting.com/blog.
This week I touched on my biggest pet hate when interpreting, something to avoid if you’re ever being guided!
Plus:
This is what it means to Play the Whistle.
Boundaries and Standards, Standards and Boundaries.
There is a huge difference between having to do something, and getting to do it.
You have all the permission in the world at your fingertips.
I did it again, Where am I being naive?
Where do you grow the most? Outside your comfort zone.
Mountains of Wisdom: Tell Your Mum!
Thanks for reading! If you think your mum would enjoy this, go ahead and share it with her. Or maybe your uncle! Give them a surprise.
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As always, you can get more content on the little-known side of Japan and Japanese culture on my blog, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Ka kite ano.
Tim.