Making a Space for Hope: Representing the Creative Reinvention of Japanese Mountain Asceticism in the Documentary Shugendō Now Mark Patrick McGuire Introduction: gathering at nature’s home On April 3, 2011 at 6 A.M., 200 pilgrims from diverse backgrounds gathered at “Nature’s Home” in Oguchi, Wakayama prefecture (south of Kyoto), to embark upon an introductory bout of mountain austerities undertaken for the benefit of the souls of individuals who perished in the devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011.1 Donning white pilgrims’ robes stamped with “Hail Kumano Avatar” and protective Sanskrit script provided for the occasion by the local non‐profit organization Kumano Produce Sports, the mixed‐gender and all‐ages group had arrived from the length and breadth of the archipelago (Fig. 1). These white‐robed early risers had come seeking an authentic experience of traditional mountain ascetic practices along the well‐trod Kumano pilgrimage route. Click for larger view View full resolution 1. Prayers at Nachi Shrine to calm the souls of earthquake and tsunami victims. Photo credit: Imaizumi Eiko © 2011. Used with permission. Their guide and spiritual leader on this occasion, local mountain ascetic and environmental activist Tateishi Kōshō, taught the neophyte ascetics to chant the Heart Sutra punctuated by blasts of his and his devotees’ conch shells. The eight‐hour event culminated in the lighting of a massive outdoor fire ritual (saitō goma) and a nourishing boar stew served with glutinous rice cakes. Throughout the 16‐km course, participants found time for reflection and contemplation not only of Kumano’s lush flora, fauna, rivers, streams, and waterfalls but also of their own interior landscapes. Concerns for family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens whose lives had been turned upside down and shaken violently by the force of the 9.0 scale earthquake and subsequent aftershocks were palpable. Japan’s main island of Honshu had shifted eight feet eastward since the first trembling of its tectonic plates mere weeks prior.2 Estimates of lives lost crept upward toward 20,000 (and exceed 30,000 as I write this essay two months hence), orphaned children and elderly in northeastern communities passed uncertain evenings outdoors or in makeshift shelters as snow fell, and new cracks appeared daily in the rosy assurances of safety and security of the nation’s nuclear reactors as radioactive iodine was found in Tokyo’s drinking water, and radioactive cesium in produce, dairy and fish from Ibaraki, Miyagi, Tochigi and Fukushima prefectures.3 Facing up to the most severe challenges since the Second World War, pilgrims entered the Kumano mountains with uncertainty about their collective future. Imaizumi Eiko, a female participant from Tokyo who had been learning to play the conch shell with Tateishi during monthly lessons in the metropolis over the course of the last year, expressed her surprise and delight with how many people joined the event. Most uninformed people, she assumed, would associate the mountain practices with a religious cult and consider participation too dangerous.4 Imaizumi was also pleased when exhausted fellow pilgrims requested she play her conch shell to energize the group.5 It was the first time she had played her conch for anyone else. Imaizumi also expressed the meaning and benefits she gained from practice at Tateishi’s training site in Kumano called “The Forest of Mountain Learning.” I feel myself at “home,” where I can relax, feel safe, and at the same time, [be in] a place where I meet “myself,” a self I had never known or met, but didn’t want to face. (…) Being with the mountains, rivers, waterfalls, air, and sky, praying and playing the conch fulfills me emotionally, mentally and makes me realize that after all, I am part of this universe. Other motivations along a spectrum of the mundane and otherworldly also inspired the pilgrims’ journey: escape from boredom, sense of homecoming and rejuvenation in nature, combining austerities with a soak in Kumano’s hot springs, and curiosity about the UNESCO World Heritage status of the region are found at the lighter end. At the heavier end of things, joblessness, depression, inability to settle down and move forward in life, lack of fulfillment in career...