Shugendo is “a harmonious blend of nature worship, Shinto, and esoteric Buddhism”.   The high mountains of Japan are the spiritual realm where its practitioners (known as yamabushi) open themselves to the Divine.

“Yamabushi, ‘mountain-prostrators’, believe that submitting themselves to the sacred power of nature allows them to take on some of that divine power.  They then use it compassionately on behalf of others when they return to their homes.”

Hiroko Yoda is one of these practitioners.  She wrote about Shugendo in Tricycle magazine.

A man named En probably was the founder of Shugendo … 1300 years ago.

“He headed for the peak of Mount Sanjogatake, where he fasted, prayed and conducted rituals for a thousand days straight.  His singular purpose was to make contact with the most powerful deity he could, in the hopes it might assuage the natural horrors wreaking havoc in the land [famine, earthquake and plague].”

Hiroko wanted to visit Mount Sanjogatake:

I wanted to see the spot where it happened.  I wanted to see if I might feel any power for myself.  I was ready.  I’d come all this way.  The gate stood before me.  A pair of wooden posts six feet tall, with a board connecting the tops, a rudimentary door framing the wilderness beyond.  Beside it stood a stone pillar, rough-hewn and squared, towering even taller than the gate.  On it a series of characters were engraved into the surface: 女 人 結 界 (“WOMEN FORBIDDEN”).

!

Hiroko chose to obey the sign.  After lingering a bit, she turned around and walked back down the trail.

She could have chosen to ignore the sign.  She could have climbed Mount Sanjogatake.

Over the centuries, Shugendo has slowly welcomed women.  But there are a few pockets of resistance.

Listen to Hiroko …

I came here to show respect, not to challenge taboos.  I came because I wanted to get as close as I could, and I had.

Shugendo wasn’t the problem.  Sexism masquerading as tradition was.  Shugendo had changed.  This place hadn’t.

***

I’m right!

…

I’m not sure