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n August
I spent ten days with the Yamabushi — a 1400-year-old cult of pre-Buddhist mountain ascetics —
in the sacred Dewa Sanzen mountains. While in training, the Yamabushi are not allowed to wash their
clothes or brush their teeth. Their meals consist of one bowl of rice, a cup of watery soup, and a piece
of pickle. They hike throughout the mountains, dressed in white and wearing brass bells that jingle
with every step. The Yamabushi worship stones, trees, thunder, lakes, and ancient sites. They are elusive
folk, though if you hike deep into the wilderness and listen carefully, you may hear the haunting three-tone
melody of their conchs carried on the wind. Continued
Mountain Worship
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Image ©2001 Karin Muller
At night they chant for hours, then seal themselves inside a temple and pour pepper powder and rice husks onto a fire. For fifteen minutes they inhale the fumes, coughing and sometimes even passing out. This is said to simulate death and eventual rebirth as a sacred being.
In this shot, I used my 20-35mm wide-angle lens to help me capture the sense of community in the Yamabushi by focusing on the groups' atire.