Shugendō Revitalization and Mountain Ascetic Practice

Record summary

Contemporary Shugendō communities and yamabushi practitioners have received renewed scholarly attention, particularly around pilgrimage, austerity, ritual embodiment, sacred landscapes, and postwar religious revitalization. Dewa Sanzan in Yamagata is a particularly identifiable field site. Accounts of visions, purification, possession, and encounters with mountain deities belong to a ritual and textual tradition rather than to independently verified paranormal reporting. The lead supports comparison with other Asian ascetic systems while requiring attention to modern tourism, institutional reconstruction, and the distinction between historical Shugendō sources and present-day practice.