(sutra-burial mounds), although many more mountains
bearing different names were also sites of sutra-burial.
Twenty-nine bear the name Buddha, either as a title or
as the name of the historical Buddha, S ́akyamuni. An-
other twenty-nine bear the name Jizo (Ksitigarbha
bodhisattva). Thirty-one bear the name Dainichi ny-
orai (Mahavairocana tathagata). Thirty-two bear the
name Kokuzo(Akas ́agarbha bodhisattva). Forty-three
bear the name Yakushi (the buddha of medicine,
Bhaisajyaguru). Fifty-four bear the name Kannon (the
bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokites ́vara). And 101
mountains are simply named gongen(avatar), a term
used to refer to a local native deity that is considered
to be a manifestation of a buddha or bodhisattva. Sev-
eral hundred other such examples of the occupation
of striking features of Japan’s topography by the Bud-
dhist pantheon attest to the creation of Buddhist sa-
cred landscapes. This naming of mountains on the
basis of buddhas, bodhisattvas, various Buddhist or
Indian deities, and local Japanese deities should not
be given too much weight, however, for it merely sug-
gests certain aspects of topophilia and does not ac-
count for the fact that thousands of mountains were
the object of more complex sacralization by means of
Buddhist rituals, narratives, and other techniques de-
scribed below.
Ritualized geography
As MAHAYANABuddhism evolved around the begin-
ning of the common era, one finds important state-
ments concerning the actual site where the Buddha
achieved awakening. In Dazhidu lun(Treatise on the
Great Perfection of Wisdom) attributed to NAGARJUNA,
for example, this site is referred to as bodhimanda(site
of awakening; Japanese, dojo), and it is described as
consisting of an immense diamond protruding at the
base of the tree where the Buddha would have sat in
meditation. In later writings the term bodhimanda
came to denote not only the physical site where the
Buddha reached awakening, but the psychological sit-
uation or “mental space” he would have attained or
produced through meditation. As a consequence, this
term became an important aspect of the properties of
sacred space in the context of ritualized practices, in
which spiritual or subjective states were always linked
to material or objective sites. Indeed, countless man-
uals detailing how rituals must be conducted contain
an important section called “visualization of the site of
practice/space of awakening” (dojokan), which details
how a ritual platform (dan) must be constructed and
consecrated, as well as specific steps in the ritualized
meditations that are supposed to lead to a visualiza-
tion of the residence of a given buddha or bodhisattva
that is thereby made to occupy the space of the ritual
platform, as well as the mind of the ritualists.
In a number of cases in Japan, such ritualized prac-
tices and exercises in visualization were projected onto
mountains, which were then regarded as the dojoof a
certain buddha or bodhisattva, that is, its site of resi-
dence, manifestation, and practice. The oldest Japan-
ese document detailing this process of identification of
a mountain with the abode (Pure Land) of a bo-
dhisattva was written by KUKAI (Kobo Daishi,
774–835) in 814. Kukai describes therein the first as-
cent of Mount Futara (today called Nantaizan and lo-
cated in Nikko) by the monk Shodo, who, reaching the
summit of its volcanic dome, envisioned it as the abode
of Kannon (Avalokites ́vara, the bodhisattva of com-
passion). Shodothen sculpted a representation of Kan-
non, which can be seen today in Chuzenji, located at
the foot of that mountain. Kukai’s rationale for iden-
tifying Mount Futara with Kannon’s residence was the
toponym, which allowed an association between the
Japanese name of the mountain, Futara, and the
Japanized version of Kannon’s Pure Land, Fudaraku
(Sanskrit, Potalaka). The entire area surrounding this
mountain subsequently became a major site of SHUGEN-
DO(Japan’s mountain religion), and ever more intri-
cate practices continued, over the centuries, to
elaborate the sacred character of the region. Such iden-
tifications of pure lands of buddhas and bodhisattvas
with Japanese mountains reached full development
with the nationwide spread of Shugendo, and ulti-
mately led to the notion that Japan, in its entirety, was
the actual residence of buddhas and bodhisattvas as
well as other deities and their retinues. Kukai also
wrote texts concerning the rituals used in the estab-
lishment of sacred grounds where monasteries were
built; the term for these grounds, kekkai(bounded
realm), refers to a ritually purified area that can range
from a ten-foot square hut, as in the tea ceremony, for
example, to large geographical areas over which the
government or individuals relinquished all control, as
in the case of sacred mountains.
Several doctrinal propositions undergirded this
geohistorical process. First, a central tenet of Shingon
esoteric Buddhism (tomitsu) held that this world is the
manifestation of its central buddha, Mahavairocana
(Japanese, Dainichi). Second, and very closely related
to the former proposition although structurally differ-
ent, the Shingi-Shingon branch of esoteric Buddhism
created by Kakuban (1094–1143) held that this worldSPACE, SACRED