. shugend and its relationship 1005
senior temple priests, coming under the influence of the Tendai New
Year ritual, the shushōe. In the calendar the rite is called zasue
, and it was held between the fifth and ninth days of the New
Year. The priests made offerings before scrolls depicting the Founder
and the three gongen, and performed an abbreviated liturgy without
the Hokke senbō. This was followed by a shared meal and ennen
(sacred dance?). On the seventh day, particpants circumambulated the
altar of the main shrine reciting the Hokke senbō.
The Summer Peak was held between IV, 3 and VIII, 8 and involved
both temple priests and shugenja; the former performed in rituals such
as the official mountain opening and closing services at Arasawa and
the ritual climbing of Gassan on VII, 13; the latter performed activi-
ties related to guiding and providing services for the large numbers of
pilgrims who visited the area at this time. A local custom related to
the opening was sakamukae. Representatives from various Tōge
neighborhoods climbed Gassan on IV, 2 after undertaking purificatory
exercises in their homes, and they gathered flowers from the moun-
tain, which they cut into small pieces to distribute to villagers on IV,
- Another seasonal custom, possibly related, was the presentation of
ninety-six vases filled with water from a sacred well at the main shrine
in IV, 8. These vases continued to be filled until VI, 14, the eve of
Haguro’s annual festival, where again flowers form the central motif.
Clearly this series of rites symbolizes the descent and veneration of
the kami (and the ancestral spirits), and this symbolism is repeated
through the medium of fire in the saitō goma held on Gassan on VII,
13, just prior to the urabon service on VII, 15.
The Autumn Peak ritual was the most important for shugenja. The
number of items concerning it appearing in the calendars attests to its
centrality as an activity integral to the identity of the complex, though
all ritual detail, as “secret,” is omitted. The rite lasted from VII, 20 to
VIII, 5, and was held in three different lodgings (shuku ). Ritual
practices were twofold—journeys to sacred places within the complex
and on the mountains, and long nighttime sūtra recitations, which
were both purificatory and incantatory. The process represented the
threefold ascent of the shugenja through the ten realms of enlighten-
ment through an integral drama of death and rebirth enacted within it.^12
(^12) The practice was recorded on DVD in 2003 and 2004, Haguro Shugendō: The
Autumn Peak (Tokyo: Visual Folklore). An English version has also been made. The
transcript can be downloaded at http://www.mfj.gr.jp/web/film/narration_haguro_f
.pdf.