Talk:Shugendō

Cleanup

This article seems to be informational and well organized, but riddled with grammatical errors. anyone with some time wanna be a good sammaritan? Shaggorama 12:52, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Looking through this. It seems that there's more info on Shugendo in other articles than there are here. Example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajrayana#Shugend.C5.8D

Kortoso (talk) 21:06, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Martial Arts

In other sites Shugendo is like a martial art... there's exist some actual marcial art where a student training in shugendo?

Sorry for my english, is very bad.

I know that some schools practice shugyo, but that doesn't make them shugendo. Kortoso (talk) 18:54, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Goma fire ritual?

The Shingon article mentions that Shugendo has a fire ritual. Any info? Kortoso (talk) 18:36, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Tengu and Yamabushi

Scholar and foremost translator or samurai literature, Mr. William Scott Wilson, in his introduction to Issai Chozanshi's "Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts", states that many scholars of Japanese culture and religion propose that the myths of the forest dwelling beings - the Tengu - are in fact directly related to the Yamabushi monks of Shugendo. In fact, Mr. Wilson goes as far as hinting that the Tengu were the Yamabushi, given the fact many of the Tengu clothing and verbiage used in their tales and teachings are precisely the same as those found in the Shugendo tradition.

According to Wilson, the Tengu were later developed into both "good and evil" characters due to their mischievous pranks in village inhabitants. Wilson also states that this could be related to the fact that many retired samurai who joined the Yamabushi tradition could not carry honorific religious titles neither be called monks due to their karmic (or murderous) past as warriors, and therefore would themselves call upon them, as an act of rebellious defiance, the "title" of demons. It probably also relates to the fact that many of these retired samurai did not completely observe strict monastic discipline, many being prone to alcohol consumption and sexual encounters with village women, which were (and are) clear forbearances of both Buddhist and Shinto disciplines.

It also brings light into the matter the fact that Yamabushi can also be written and translated into "mountain warrior" (山武士), akin indeed to the Shaolin monks of China. Truth of the matter is that many masters of traditional Japanese martial arts claimed to have learned their secrets from the Tengu at Mount Kurama, such Iizasa Chōisai Ienao, founder of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, and most dramatically is the tale of Ushiwakamaru, who later became Japan's greatest hero, Minamoto no Yoshitsune - the hero of the hoary Heike Monogatari. Season practitioners of Kenjutsu and Aikido will be well acquainted with exercises such as Torifune no gyo and Furidama, which are clear absorptions from Shugendo practices, and are practiced till today. Yagyu Munenori, founder of one of the most notorious schools of samurai swordsmanship - Shinkage-ryu, in his book entitled "The Life Giving Sword", adds to very end of the book, drawings which contains Tengu practicing his style of Kenjutsu.

Thus, the well trained Buddhist-Shinto monk-warriors of Japanese mountains are very likely to have been the preservers of their many martial traditions throughout the ages. Even the Wikipedia page regarding the Tengu states that: Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice of Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the garb of its followers, the yamabushi.

Please relate to Wilson's introduction to verify what has been stated here, along with further bibliographical support given by the author.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu#:~:text=Tengu%20(Japanese%3A%20%E5%A4%A9%E7%8B%97%2C%20lit,found%20in%20Japanese%20folk%20religion.&text=Tengu%20are%20associated%20with%20the,of%20its%20followers%2C%20the%20yamabushi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Scott_Wilson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenshin_Sh%C5%8Dden_Katori_Shint%C5%8D-ry%C5%AB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morihei_Ueshiba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yoshitsune