During this year’s Autumn-Peak Mountain-Entry, I was privileged to present the manuscripts for the annotated translation of the Outline of the Haguro Dharma Lineage of Shugendō. This text has accompanied me for over ten years and…

Master Gakudō Endō is an old timer from Haguro's Kotakuji Shozenin who has been active across multiple lineages in the worlds of Shugendo, Shinto and esoteric Buddhism for over thirty years. He is currently based in the mountain faith of Mount Hakkai in his home town of Niigata…

This month, my complete translation of 'Tracing the Origins of Esoteric Buddhism' was presented to its author, a dear friend and mentor of mine.

"Through insights born out of the birthplace of esoteric Buddhism itself, this series of essays vividly conveys…

An event put on by friends. For those in Tokyo, there will be an exhibition on revival efforts concerning traditional yamabushi material culture, as well as a presentation by Haguro Shugenja, Masanori Naruse, who runs Hijirisha (http://www.hijirisha.jp/)  in the spirit of Jusanji (13 O'Clock), a Shugen-adjascent cultural space previously located in Higashine,…

 This week marks the beginning of a year long exploration of the sūtras dedicated to Acalanātha Vidyārāja (不動明王; fudōmyōō) and their commentaries, beginning with the shorter sūtra   (shōfudōkyō) and the Section on the Acolytes (hyōhōbon). Using the  「Practice of…

 As part of our ongoing exploration and transmission of the Dharma-conch methods of the lineage, an annotated English translation of Master Honma's seminal work, the ryūra-himaki, has finally been made available for release, alongside other lineage-specific commentaries, for the use of practitioners studying the horagai. The aim…

 Alongside mountain entry (nyūbūshūgyō) and the abhiṣeka of karmic connection (kechienkanjō)、activities were succesfully carried out at head-temples Kotakuji-Shozenin (Haguro), Kannonji, and Nanzenbō (Shiga/Hiei).

During the abhiṣeka of karmic connection many participants were…

As part of this month's activities I was able to distribute union-printed copies of the commentary on the nine verses,  corresponding to the theme of this year's mountain-entry Dharma talk.

 An annotated translation of the 「 ritual etiquette of establishing the day in accordance with in and yō」

 Pictured is the hall where we gave participants an hour long induction on what to expect over the course of mountain entry (nyūbūshūgyō) and the abhiṣeka of karmic connection (kechienkanjō). Here, we also successfully launched the new…

 Together with teachers, a translation of lectures and commentary on the Verses of the Shakujō has been completed, providing an overview of the three and nine verses as well as layers of interpretation on the shakujō (sistrum/khakkhara)

The book is finally ready for release, available via me through this website or via amazon. A colour version via amazon is available here and a black and white version (more easily available outside the US) can be found here. This has been a multi-year…

The public life of a Shugen temple revolves around a ritual cycle which includes public services dedicated to various principal images (gokaichō), the star ceremony (hoshimatsuri), mountain-valley asceticism (būchūgyō) and new years services (shujōe). The new year period is a busy time where individuals, families and even companies request rituals…

Between December and March, I was once again fortunate enough to spend a lengthy period of time with teachers in  person rather than on Zoom for the first time since the pandemic. The precious nature of this opportunity was compounded by the news that one of my teachers has…

 An annotated translation of the Record for the Ritual Procedures of the Great Saitō Goma (saitō daigoma-ku watashiki) has been completed, including its associated sūtras, verses and commentaries. A quintessential Shugen ceremony outwardly…