part of Honshu Island to the southernmost part of
Kyushu Island, and they ranged from relatively small
areas to the entirety of Japan. Related mandalization
processes also occurred in Tibet; further research
should indicate whether other countries engaged in
similar processes of sacralization.
Another major technique used in Shugendoto pro-
duce sacred space was to consider individual mountains
or entire mountain ranges as the natural embodiments
of Buddhist scriptures. The Katsuragi range in the Kan-
sai area, for example, was crossed by practitioners who
stopped at twenty-eight caves adorned with statues or
where scriptures had been interred; each cave was sup-
posed to symbolically represent one of the twenty-eight
chapters of the LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-
SUTRA). On Kyushu Island, the Kunisaki peninsula was
regarded as the lotus pedestal on which the Buddha
preached the Lotus Sutra; eventually, twenty-eight
monasteries, each corresponding to a chapter of the
scripture, were built on the slopes of the peninsula, and
there too peregrinations leading to these monasteries
were held to enable one to grasp the multiple mean-
ings of the sutra (this peregrination is still performed
once every twelve years). Also in northern Kyushu,
Mount Hiko was regarded as the site where MAITREYA
(Japanese, Miroku), the next Buddha, would achieve
buddhahood. Scriptures describe the palace where
Maitreya awaits this moment as being composed of
forty-nine chambers, and on and around Mount Hiko
forty-nine caves were made to correspond to these
chambers. As time passed, two mountains ranges ex-
tending north and northwest from Mount Hiko were
treated as natural mandalas. Furthermore, Mount
Hiko itself was regarded as the natural embodiment of
a Tendai doctrine known as the Four Lands (shido
kekkai), which were progressive spiritual stages reached
in a ritualized meditation on the Lotus Sutra.In this
case, the mountain was divided into four superim-
posed zones, each separated by a sacred gate (torii),
and life was strictly regulated therein. In the lowest
zone, ascetics and laypeople could commingle and re-
side; in the second zone, only ascetics could reside; in
the third zone, which consisted of a variety of caves
and sites for austerities, neither residences nor women
were allowed.
The fourth zone, which encompassed the triple
summit of the mountain, could be visited only by as-
cetics who had completed fifteen mandala courses
through the mountain ranges, but even they could not
stay for long, for no bodily fluid, of any kind, was to
defile the sacred space in question. The study of
Shugendohas barely begun in Western countries, but
it is obvious that this unique system was instrumental
in the formation of concepts and practices related to
the notion that sacred space is, in fact, the entirety of
the natural world. These features illustrate a historical
process whereby reverence for discrete “sites of cult”
was enhanced by Shugendorituals and concepts, and
evolved into a “cult of sites” that is representative of
premodern Japanese culture.Pilgrimage routes
Eventually, many of these sites became pilgrimage stops
for both priests and laity. Pilgrimages are structurally
different from the mandalized peregrinations Shugen-
dopractitioners performed, however, and a single case
will serve to illustrate this important difference. In cen-
tral Japan’s Kii peninsula, Shugendopractitioners went
through two mandalized courses, one leading from
Yoshino, located in the north, to Kumano, located in
the southernmost part of the peninsula, and one lead-
ing from Kumano to Yoshino. Only male ascetics could
engage in these mandalized peregrinations. But there
was also a pilgrimage to Kumano, which emperors, aris-
tocrats, warriors, and commoners alike engaged in. Its
course, however, was radically different: It entailed fol-
lowing the western coast of the peninsula in a southerly
direction, and then entering the mountainous ranges
of the southern part of the peninsula to eventually reach
Kumano. This pilgrimage course was marked by
ninety-nine sites dedicated to protectors of various
deities. In other words, Kumano was considered a sa-
cred space by all, but it could be reached only by dif-
ferent roads, one “professional” (the mandalized
peregrination), and the other, “common” (the pil-
grimage). Furthermore, since Kumano came to be re-
garded as the Pure Land on earth of Kannon, the
bodhisattva of compassion, it was placed at the head of
yet another pilgrimage, dedicated to Kannon’s thirty-
three manifestations, each worshiped in different
monasteries connected by pilgrimage roads in central
Japan. This pilgrimage was so popular that it was du-
plicated in many areas of Japan: Today there are at least
fifty-four different pilgrimage courses dedicated to
these thirty-three forms of Kannon.
Starting in the medieval period, religious narratives
detailing the origins, supernatural events, and the
topography of Japan’s famed sacred sites were elabo-
rated and written down. This fairly large body of lit-
erature indicates that sacred space cannot be separated
from sacred time, that the history of these cultic sites
is an intrinsic feature of their sacredness, and that lo-SPACE, SACRED