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gi"."iil ;il,. ;riilJ ::i.H:, T: pl:*in.n.". ,r."" i"r*l;;;"id #il"il.fi l"* i::t_T:l: 11 robbed,h. '"ffi:l ;;ii'-ffiffi ill?*l1 ll-. las
f:,.:l."yith torted Sanscritsounds. ""."i,r"
rs d$-

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lmli'll.lT:, llliTj:

oXd n?,?d,:..u.1{ ofperenniar ^t,ff:perirr H

Mountain Oracles
\\'hen Mr Percival Lowell climbed Mt Ontake in August rliqr he found himself, at a spot just above the eighth sta$!, rlrc astonishedwitnessof 'certain esotericphenomena which trrrnedout to be as unknown as they were peculiar'. Three youps men dressedin the white attire of the Ontake pilgrim \v(:retngaged in fervent prayer before a small shrine. One rlren seated himself with his back to the shrine, his eyes , losed, and his hands clutching a goheiwand. A second man tlrt:edhim intoning formulae, 'tying his fingers into mystic accompanying each act with a gutteral grunt krrotS :;rr{gestiveof intense exertion'. The third man stood and rvatched. The man with the wand soon began to twitch convulsively, every moment with increasing violence, until at l,,ngih he appeared to be in 'the full fury of a seemingly ,uperhuman paroxism'. The throe subsided,giving place to ;Liontinuorrt lt.*or, like a top when it settlesat the apex of its spin. The other man, in an archaic and reverent form of ,peech, asked lvhat deity had descended''I am Hakkai', rire entlanced man replied. The interrogator then asked a seriesof questions; what was the weather like at the summit of the mountain, how was the health of those at home, what would be the outcome of their pilgrimage ? To all these cluestions the god replied briefly. At the end of the catechism tire medium was thumped smartly on the back until he Openedhis eyes, 'like one awaking from a profound sleep'. The trio then changed places. The interrogator moved into the seat of the medium, the onlooker took the place of the interrogator, while the medium retired to the post of onlooker. The whole ritual was then repeated with scarcely any variation; a similar entrancement, interview and awakening. Once more the three men changed places, each now taking up the position he had not yet occupied, and for a thirdiirne the ritual was enacted.The party then put on their

;il;ffiff ,l'i,l,ilH; ;fr: *:::tt ::,iT.'"* lJ...s!, ji .hisshel, r.i, iro"_ri"g.J#;

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straw hats, seized their long lvooden poles and continued their journey up rhe mouniain. Mr Lowe[ r"nr.q"".,tiy encountered them at various spots on the summit ..,gu.g"i il ul exactly similar ritual. Thl next day, having visitid".ll the shrines on the various volcanic peaks ..,d on the edge of the various volc.aniclakes, b"g"n theirjourney down the !h.y mountain and back to their homes 35o miies away. Most of this distancethey accomprishedon fJJt, and while they *.r. on the mountain_they ati nothing and clrank onry ouater., The esotericphenomena which so impressed Mr Lowell, and which afterwards stimurated.him to undertake further researchesinto t\. trance practices of were the Japan,z lame yorigit| rituals which we saw iq the last chapter performed in village tcmpres and shrines. Here, though the circumstancesur. ro*"*hat different, the uuri" procedure is the same: a deity is called into the body of a medium and cajoled.-t9speak. But the scancenow comes, as a seasonal village festival but as an cvent in a mountain ^ot pilqrjmage. In order ro comnunicate with thc deity it. faithful must now climb the mountain where he resides.Nor are the faitMul confined^to o particular vilagc or group of. villages. Believersin the ontake cult arc usual"ly members of thc ko or pilgrim clubs, whose white-clad bands are in summer so prominent on the slopesof holy mountains. These ,ta clubs can be found uil orr., Japan, dedicated to It :*o:r{p of notable holy mountain* oi r.l.brated shrines. iVIt Fuji, Mt Hag-uro, Tatiyama, Akibasan, S.g.;i d;;; and Yudonosanall have their k6,which like cintake camefrom a-ll .over J3pur, to- pay them ho*ug.. Likewise th" gr.ut shrinesof rse and Izumo have been sincemedieval times the object of widespreadftd'worship.a In their numbers and distiibution these ,ta clubs vary considerably. Some, scarcerylarger than a family .or,..rr1 consist of a mere dozen people; others may boast several hundred members. some are confined to one village or to one particular quarter of a city; others may spread over several or straggreover severarwards of a city. Alr, 'illages, however, have in .o--on the dedication to the yearry pilgrimage. once a year, between the middle of Jrrry aod the middle of september, the crub will set out, in the full sBo

l)anoply of the mountain pilgrim, for the slopesof its destined summit. If its numbers are small, all the members may go. If unmanageably large, then lots may be drawn as to who shall have the privilege. All are similarly attired: white trousers and jacket, with mystic signs stamped in red and lrlack on the back, a large conical straw hat, rosary, straw .sarrdals on the feet, and the long wooden pole called kon' on ,gogue, which may be branded the namesof the mountains that its owner has climbed. These are the figures who may still be seenin their thousandsconverging on the foothills of their mountains and wending their wLY, some lithely, some laboriously, to the most holy spot on the summit. He it All likewise boast a leader, usually known as sendatsrz. is who shepherdsthe flock up the ten stageswhich mark the route to the summit, who decides where they shall sleep, supervises their worship at the sundry holy spotson the wvY, who leads the chorus of chanting by which they ease the pains and fatigues of their climb. He should combine, there[bre, the qualities of scoutmaster, courier and mountain guide. The ka dedicated to the worship of Mt Ontake however, differ in their traditional structure from the kA to be found on the slopesof any other mountain.a In the first place they among their officers the persons necessaryto the possess Most prominent is the medium, conduct of ayorigitd sdance. or 'between seat'. Like the medium in the known as naka<a village oracles, he is usually an ordinary man with no professional pretensions, who has developed his powers of trance through a rigorous courseof g2o. He is brought to his state of trance by the maezaor 'front seat'. Like the interrogator in the village ritual, he summons the deity into the medium's body, questions him and eventually sends him away. It is he who usually also fulfils the duties of sendatsu for the group, shepherding, supervising, paternally admonishing. Occasionally it is the nakaza who undertakes these extra tasks, and occasionally, again, a third person who plays no part in the ritual of the siance. Four more figures make up the complement of officers of the Ontake ko. These are the shiten,named after the Four Kings of Buddhist iconography, whose duty it is to mount

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during the rituar and prevent ilfr1-i:,:1?:iiiilfiLff::i:

The question at once pr.r.r,t, itser{ how did the onhkc kd come to possess this iecuriar ,rr".r".". i and no ko dediclr:g ,g any-othe, lvrry did they, *r;;;;ir,, u..o*. urro"i_ ated with the.l,,rigitd rituar',and why dJ ci"rrke, arone of the holy mountailrr, b.com. alt tt. ,..r,. orlin ,eur,ces ?5 The history of the mo*ntain to r;;;;;;ent suppriesthe answer. During the eighteenth .."r".y, "foot earrier. the Kiso valrey at the of th. *o,'iil;;","ii'possibly inhabited enclaves bv of ascetics known aaio.rr..r" -irr. *.r.urri.d out an annual ascent of Mt ^ j;;;. ontake, i" sixth month, preceded by u period of exceptiona[y ,;;;;. secrusion purgation' For as and as seventy-firr" duyr, in some cases even a hundred days-before -long asceticswere required to isolate themselv", Jh.: ;ilb;-fi. f.o* ,t. .i--unity in segre_ gated huts. There they .oot.a their food on a separateRure-lre, avoiding "r"-*"rgre vegetables,and perfor*.t 4 i."i, ilrr, n""Itry and strong frequent cold water austerities and long sessionsor *r.,t.. chanting. only after this dauntingry rong period of rituar clcansing were they considered fit to r.ifoot ,rr. r.rry ground of the mountain.6 For the rest of th. "., y.ut-rt.y mixed ;o;Ii""ely with thc village communities in ,f* pgrforming for them the tasksusuarly expected of an ".ff.y., ur.gii.. p;";;llr among their methods was theT origita ttr;;i. This ;ht;;;rd perform on request in private ho.rr.r, summoning questioning deities assoiiated with ""d il.' mountain_Or Daijin, Tdriten, Marishit.n-ir,ro ti. ____ body of s4 u. 4 rrlcqtum, *.d1:1it a young ""*/ man known as ichi. Tor,r'ards the end of the eighteenth century a notable change in the guJt of ttr. ,rro.rntain *u, urr"ght about by two ascetics,Kakumei and r'rur,. E;;h l;;redited r'ith having brazeda new trail to the summit. Kakumei is said to have opened the route from the v'rag;;iK^;awa in t785, Fukan to have done ,rr. **" L yru* Iater for the route on the southern side of the f.o,,' ,r.. l."rret of oaa*. Through the influence -r""oin .irlr."*.ir;;;;i.,ittug., in the valley modified, their .ig;;; r,rl. ,.rr*ry_nve da),s of preliminary seclusion .oi to"a-;;. renient tweniy-sevcn days. zBz

'"fhe ascent of the mountain thus became possiblefor many people to whom the prospect of two-and-a-half lunar months of isolation had proved too daunting. There quickly lormed round the two ascetic figures a number of ko, dedicated, as had been the older groups, to a yearly ritual ascent of the mountain. Into the activities of theseftothere naturally crept other survivals from the former groups of d0ja, prominent among which was the practice of 2origit6. The kA therefore counted among their members a medium and an asceticwho, in the course of the annual ascent as well as at the club's meetings during the rest of the year, would summon the deities of the mountain and cause them to thus started, has persisted speak.The tradition of the sCance, cver since. Today Ontake kd are to be found in almost every province of Japan. From Aomori to Kyflshfl white-clad parties convergeduring the two climbing months on the little town of Kiso Fukushima at the foot of the mountain, and proceedup the lower forestedslopesby one of the two recognisedroutes. Many ko have recently relaxed the strictnessof discipline traditional to the Ontake cult. One which preserves the old ways more scrupulouslythan most, and provides us therefore with a useful example of former procedure, is the k0 in the village of Kurogawa in the Kiso valley. When investigated by Ikegami in rg57 this large k0 was found to number among its members no lessthan four nakazaandfour maeza. And this despite the exceptionally sevcregld required in the training of both. On thirty consecutive nights during the coldest part of the winter, the future nakazamust repair to the river at nine o'clock and pour buckets of icy water over his head and body. He must spend many hours of the rest of the night learning by heart, and by the light of a single candle, a long successionof prayers and spells. Many candidates gave up the struggle before the five successive winters necessary to louse their powers of trance were to completed. A similarly severeregime of 976 was necessary tlre training of the maeza:five consecutivewinters of cold rvater and abstention were likewise required before he was it to speak. Both these able to evoke a deity and persuad.e offices, however, when eventually achieved, carried with zBg

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them the posthumous title of reijin, miraculous person. The men who had accomplishedthesepowerswere believed to be apotheosisedafter death, and thiir souls to dwell on the slopesof the mountain. z Those ,td which today preserveso carefully the traditional disciplines of the cult are co-paratively ,ur.. some indeed have so relaxed their former sirictnessihut they possess no nakaza at all. No one of their membersis prepar.a tt undergo glo ne-cessary to cultivate the capacity for tranJe. l\. :gy.r, Mr watanabe, the genial patriarch of the Mitakekyd ,sect,, into which sincethe beginning of the Meiji period the various "ars,rr.d ontake ko have been loosely federated., me when I first climbed the mountain in rq6r that iew katodayobserved the traditional precautionsof pirrity. some negtectedentirely the usual preliminary purgatiln: they failed t6 avoid i*prrr! foods and neglected the cold water ablutions. others observeda merely prefunctory couple of days beforesetting out. The older and more detailed requireme*ts of puritf-.r,o leather to be brought on to the rnountain, sandals to be of straw, purses of cloth, women altogether debarred-had long been forgotten. As a consequence of such laxity, the practice of trance had inevitably di-ir,irh.d. on the three occasions when I climbed Mt ontake, however, I found no shortage of trances.s In the woodblock print of Mt ontake which appears in the J'{ihon Meisan 4}rt, an illustrated guidebook'to the mountainous districts of Japan published in r8o7, we are shown. a lofty- soaring peak, iowering numinously and precipitously above the streams and farmhouses huddled below. No rival mountain is to be seen arrywhere near. It is. a single Hqh place, endued with divine symmetry and precipitancy, a single ladder to heaven.e Here we seethe superiority of the painting over the photog-tupl: A painting shows us not the bbjective appearanceof the thing but the manner in which it ii seenuv irr. painter. The anonymous artist whosesketches becametLe woodblock prints of the guidebook sarv Mt ontake not as it actuallv appears but as the image of an ideal holy mountain. HL painted the mountain as he conceived the other world, the abode of numina, beautiful and perilous.

zB+

has little of thc In fact Mt Ontake, seenfrom a distance' or Mt lbuki' Fuji Mt of fearful symmetry i;;;;tr. .ttd tT:i symmetrical any jagged, Its summrt ,, ,qrrui ^"d' successlon in a disapptTtq ifo lr.u,ringtorrg ;,;.; p;tsessed. tftJtt hut" left a circle of five craters' ,,i"rfit"ic e*plosiorr.tl In height it risesto cach filled with the green waters of a lake' Like other holy mountains in no more than ;,l3; ilt' summit are divided into ten stages .fapan, the routJs to the rest and refreshment ,r,r'gair, each marked by ^ hut where carried up on the are pro,,i'io"' huts th" to rnay be had. as gdriki, who may be seenplodding lracksof portert il; immense loads of tinned fish' rrpwards bo*.i;;;" or "*it' of beer, jars of bean paste and tea' bags of rice, .;; empty of foot with ,loirrir,g precipitately downwards' sure loads. from hamlets in thc The rccognised routes both start and. Kurosawa. For many miles upwards f;hiih;"oi"r.i on either side is lrom thesevillages the old trackway {a3ked Like giant chessmen' by curiou, .t.rri,.' of carved megaliths' coalescein stiange throngs and clusters' these stones ";; atways' until the fifth now d.windle t;;; t"tggti"g lines' B--ut stand as silent guides to the or sixth stage i, ,.utftl, '"hty directionortr'.-otaroad.Allareinscribed,inornatecharac. the posthumousname' ending with ters d.ugorr, oiaf,.. 'lo"t, These multitudes in reijin,of tfre u,ttti" they "**t*orate' ofstonesareinfactmemorialsofformetmaezaarrdnakala, led bands of faithful rvho climbed th. mountain many times, now believed'to dwell, apotheosised to the ,,r*-ii,';;t";. the mountain' and available to summons,on the slopes.of forests ,iug., uottr routes wind up through In their ro* H,ere there are waterfalls' under of pine ffioti"ti"' ^rr.a stand" Shintaki' for example' on the which trr. fuiitnli af*" from a height it u concentrated Odaki ,orlt.,"Jrop' -uy stones'The force jet, in front of . du'k cave futl of inscribed believer is stunning' of the water o', tf" bare head' of the the longest anyone may Three Heart Sutras, I was told' is treesdiminish into the stand it. From the sixth stagetnl tatt .crawling'varietyofpinetree,haimatsu,whichspreadsitself many acresof mountainlike a dark green bony lichen over sttg" the trees and all other vegetation side. From ,fr. "igtt'h 285

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cease.The mountain rears itself steeply upwards in a barrcrr waste of lava rocks and cinders, ihe pith punctuated at intervals by stone images of the deities of ihe mountain. Furious figures from the esoteric Buddhist pantheon, with stiffiy erect hair and.stamping feet, may be seenside by side with bronze shintopigs, their backstrarrsfixedby gohei wands. on the summit the landscape is lunar. Two ihrin.r, on. with an antlered roof, the othei and altitudinally high.r onc a stone enclosure surrounding a curious thro if ,ton. iyuq:r,-are sparatedby un..i of roosewhite ro.fr. Beyond $e higher shrine a precipice drops down several hundred feet to- . 9ry crater, ringed with a collar of jagged ,o.k. Beyond this, another and larger crater, filled *i*iir,. green waters of a lake. on this water's edgestandsa hut, whert the torp is good, and a stone image of the dragon woman. An expanseof rock and waste tand to one side-of the lake, dotted with odd piles and pyramids of stones, is calej sainokawara, the dry river bed where dead children are believed to_ passcenturiesmaking little piles of stones. As on other mountains, the weather .hor,g., with startling suddenness. In a moment the landscape isllotted out in a white mist, through which loom onry the grey and, eerie outline of rocks, pyramids of stonesand the antlered roof of the shrine. All distant sounds are deadened. There is onlf the flapping of flag placed as an offering on a nearby pile .a of stones, or the indrawn breath and c"lapping hands of someonein prayer by the lvater's edge. A m-omentlater the mist clears and the mountain bursti into strong sunshine, reve-aling the jagged hills and the green lake below. anywhere along the route to this summit, in front ^Almos-t of one of the statues or inscribed megaliths, one is liable to come across a group of crouching white figures. In their midst, with his back to the statue, stiffiy sits"a man with a white-paper wand in his hands. strange'gasps and bursts of sound may come from his mouth, to which the crouching figures reverently respond. sometimes his voice is resonani arrd booming. sometimes it is a muttered gabble, so low that the man facing him must put his ear cloie to his mouth to hear what is said. The wand he holds is usually quivering. Sometimesit swishesback and forth like a flug. a86

Such a sight always betokens a\ 01a sdance' One of the tlcities of the mountain, Ontake Daijin, Hakkaizan Daijin, o| ofre of the dragon deities from the lake, Hakuryfrsan or Itytjin, has been laled into the party's nakala and induced r,r'speak.Sometimesthe utterance takes the form of a dial,rg,-ie.The deity is asked what weather the party should ,.x!ect during tire next stage, where they should stay the tbliowing niglt, whether all is well with their families at kO may ask about the coming rice harvest, lrome. ,{ "ilLg. or the typhoois to be expectedin the early autumn' A city ko may'ask how prices may behave in the coming month. Sometimes,howeier, there is '.o dialogue; the deity thanks rhe party for having taken the trouble to come, and delivers of benediction and advice' iLgeneral message ift.o take place at night in the huts. Many Such sdances to times I have lain awake in the hut by the lake, listening [he sounds, from the room above, of constantly repeated trances; the swish and' flap of the medium's wand, the murmur of questions, the strangled groans in-which the divine rrnswersare d.lirrered, .ttdthe sudden sharp 5fues{5*'['', ,Hyun!, ,Shin !'*with which, again and-again in the course ,rf ih. night, the medium is entranced, restored and rer:ntranced. The most impressivetrances, however, always took place at Kengamine, the topmost shrine' Here among the^rocks is a storie enclosurein which standsa curious cluster of stone images. one, with an elongated face reminiscent of the gr..:t heads on Easter Island, another,_said to represent with a cloak of feathers.Two or three, Sukunabikona, carved. of more conventionally clad in the tall hat and high collar court dress,representedvarious high-ranking deities. place The rocks ai the feet of theseimiges are a favourite place, for parties to hold a sdance.When Lfirst reached this in tlh. early afternoon of August 7th, f found the enclosure the filled with white figures and iire cold air resoundingwith Hann2a clanging of bells lnd with loud, chanting of the the Slzini2alSilence sudd'enly fell, and I Pry that one of round parry, a muscular young-maIL with curly hair bound the with a white towel, had-seatedhimself with his back to In hands. featheredimage, a wand, of paper streamersin his 287

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front of him crouched.a thin and intense young man, wrr, soon burst in fierce and vibrant tones i.,to it. u*;rryo shtn-g\,,pointing his hands meanwhile in stabbing mudras at the medium's sorarprexus.The rest of the party crouched round with bowed heads. The wand in the medium,s hands soon began to trembre, and his eyesturnei up into his head so that only the whites showea. He then burst into jerky speech.Much of what he said-.was inaudibr; mumbred, but certain passageswere not d.ifficult to understand. The divinity seemedto be proffering rather banal advice about the party's jo_urney home. 'Be-carefur ," srip on the s1e9R Rlaces',r heard \im say, and 'Take "oi extra care near the eighth stagenot to get rost in-the mist'. trre ihin young man, his head bowed, deferential noises,,-..r. as a retainer might make on receiving -id" the behestsof his rord, while thc cloyching company murmured from time to time a chorus of thanks for the ad.vicevouchsafed.The muscurar medium at Iength ceasedhis utterance,,only to be s.ir.d by the thin *2r, vigorously thumped on the back, jerked in it j"i""; and shouted at in " ;b";; monosyllablls. Flopping tharp under this treatment for two or thrle minutes rike a drunken man, the medium eventually stretched himself a"a ,,."J"p. The sdancewas over. The party burst into a finar H;;;; slingyo before trooping down the rong nryr,, e of ,ton" ffi and away down the mountainside. Their place was soon taken by another party, whose nakazawas a littre ord man. H" *us h.rp;-;p on to a rock at the feet of one of the_images, and-hardiy *u, the wand put into his hands than his irinkted face *u, .oovursed in writhing contortions. His mouth twisted sideways and downwards, his eyes arternately ,.r.*.Jtightly shut or opened staring wide so that only the whites showed. He begay to gaspLut words, but so low that his foilowers had to put their earscloseto his mouth to hear *r,.i r," was saying. Finally he seized lolg of a young man, pummeted him vigorously on the_back, and feil fo"rw..d'in..t. when they pulled him to his feet he seemedto h'0.,.g"i".a conscious_ ness. The following morning I warked, up to the shrine again just before sunrise.The rfy *u, arr.udy growing light, with zBB

,r band of red to the east.All round the mountain lay a seaof rlove-grey clouds tossed up into billows and waves, out ,,1'which rose, like magic islands, the darker grey forms of ,rther mountain peaks. As the sun rose above the bank of , loudsthe crowd gathered on the summit began to chant and was transformed. , lap their hands, and in a moment the scene 't'he grey air becamebrilliant and golden, and the mountain islandsbelow turned blue, layer on layer, dark blue turning paler the higher they rosefrom the clouds, as though a brush ,lipped in ink on one sidehad painted them in a singlesweep. I-turned from this enchanted view to seeinside the shrine In the dawning light the ,r sceneof unexampled strangeness. :;torre enclosurewas thronged with people, and on every rock, irr every spacebetween the images,sat a man in a trance. 'l'hesewere not mediums prophesying before a grouP, as I lrird seen the day before. They appeared to be working in through Each medium had standing over him a maeza, 1r:rirs. into a was brought whoseshouts, mantras and mudras he seven stone images and trance. I counted among the rocks ,r[ thesestrange pairs working simultaneously. One pair, poised on the edge of a precipitous slope down stood to the lakc, was particularly remarkable. The rnaeza ferocious with hands his ,lose to the medium, twisting irrtensityinto the nine mudras known as kuji, repeating as he rlid so the nine accompanying magic syllables: o-t6-sha-kai-j in-ret suRin-b2 laf-znN ! ,\t the last syllable his voice rose to a sharp yell, while with trvo fingers stiffiy outstretched he made the nine strokes of tlre gate, four vertical, five horizontal, through which no ,'vil influences may pass.l0He then thrust his fingers fiercely lirrwards towards the medium's stomach in the pointed ,nord mudra, shouting meanwhile in sharp grunting tones rhe syllables 'a-uN-A-uN!' These, the first and last letters of rhe Sanscrit alphabet, are believed to encompassbetween them the entire universe. He then passed into the Lesser Spellof Fud6: basarada! Nomakusamanda \rrd, severaltimes repeated, the inevitable HannyaShingyoThe medium, a sickly-looking young man, responded by ,yowing paler and paler, turning his eyesup into his head, eBg

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and shaking the wand in his hands with increasing viorence. His utterance was eventualry d.eriveredin so faint a voice that the mae<ahad to put iris ear close to trr. medium,s mouth in order to hear. For a minute r was witness to the strange spectacreof severarpairs of men seemingly .h;;;; together in closeembraceon ih. craggy edge of thJi.;;tpl; The messagedelivered, the maezarestored the medium to consciousness by puiling his.joints, pummeiling l.il ;;;'k; pointing the sword mudra at his stomach u"a gi,rir,g;;;; loud roars ending w'ith the single sylrable ,**. Then, with curious casualness, they both rose, stretched themserves and strolled uyuy- None of the ray Japar.r. .ii*bers who had made their way up to the rh.ini to ,.. tn.l,rnrise took the slightest notice of them. I walked back to the hut by the rake, where r soonfcl into a dose' I was woken by strangehowls and wail, .o-i.,g fto; outside, and on looking out-of the windo* ,.* a trance of great violence place by rhe side of the lake. A woman lakjns in white was flingin[ herserfio and fro on the ground, in the throes of what seemed to be an excru.ir;t* seizure. Her voice rose to a-strangled shriek, while *i;h;.rific violence she lashed and flailed the grourrd with her white wand. A young marr appeared to bJ responding to t ., ,tri.k;;;; controlling the direction of hei a moment later he himself gave a loud roar, pounded -o'.lrr.r,ir. her on the back and jerked herjoints. Ii,h great f.ro.itf rr.-,r... performed the Nine Mudras and reciila tn. u..offiu.,r,.,* syllables. A moment later the women emerg.d, q,.rfutlnd smiling as though from a refreshing sleep. The young men turned his attention to another woman in the party. '.ext scarcely had he poirrt.J his finge; ;, her in the sword mudra trrun she gave a roud shriek and began to writhe t_o and fro, dashing ri., ili;.kwards and forwards and flailils tlre ground w:ith r,., *ur,a. I heard the young man ask, 'who is it who has come ?' but h., ..piy *^ an incomprehensiblescream. She then g..,r. ,.rr.rut remarkable leaps, six or seven inches into theiir from a kneeling position, and began to splutter forth *otJr. rt. o.,ty word I could make out was.aris-at!,repeated over and. over again, which I took to be the deity thanking tr,r puriy for rraving 290

r orrre. After a few minutes of such violent utterance the young man sent the deity away with the usual thumps on tlre back. It was astonishing to see the woman, after so ;rgonisingan expenseof energy, come to herself as though :;lrehad woken up from a quiet afternoon nap. I approached the party, which I saw to consist of the young man and twelve women, oddly reminiscent of a witches' coven, and enquired what deity it might be that lrad possessed the last woman. It was difficult to tell, the young man replied, but it seemedto be the dragon divinity or severedeity, who might l{yujin; this was a kitsuikamisama rvell produce violent paroxismsif the kind we had just seen. IIis own name, he informed me, was Omomo Yoshio, and lre and his party had come all the way from Niigata. Four years later, entirely by chance, and in the same rocky place by the lake, I met Mr Omomo again. He had grown so considerably in stature that I scarcely recognised lrim. He was both taller and larger. His party too had grown. It was no longer the odd coven of twelve women, but a more r:onventionally mixed group of some two dozen people. In a t:oupleof hours' time, he informed me, the party would hold ;Ln rze sdance at a place near the topmost shrine called Sanjflrokudoji, the Thirty-six Boys. At the appointed time, therefore, I made my way to the place. It lvas a peculiarly lunar spot, set among lava rocks, rvith a precipice dropping down on one side to invisible clepthsfrom which tails of cloud, like volcanic smoke, kept rnysteriouslyrising and vanishing. To the other side lay the tlat basin of a crater, ringed round with craggy rocks, and beyond it a secondcrater, with a green lake and a patch of snow. runmelted Against this unearthly background the party crouched <lown among the rocks, with Mr Omomo, a wand in his hands, prominently to the fore. For several minutes they recited loudly. Then, suddenly and without the slightest warning, Mr Omomo whipped round to face the party. His face was scarcely recognisable. His eyes had disappeared into his head, and the wand in his hands swishedto :rnd fro. In a resonant booming voice, and in a high literary speechlike the language of the NO plays, he began to speak.
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There was no dialogue, fo, there was no m,aeza to bring Mr omomo into his- trance and put questions to him, Instead, the divinity addressed,u"h *"*b,, of the ho in turn, delivering warnings and advice. one by one .u.ii man or woman approached, prostrated himself before the entranced figure and for two or three minutes received * personal message. The voice continued to among the rocks f<lr nearly half an hour. rt was 'esound. the longest trance I had evcr witnessed. Eventually by ,rrurs^g, and thumping Mr omomo was restored to irimserf, ind the wand was with difficulty extracted fi'om his convulsively clutched :o-: hands. Puzzled at first T. t9 why he shourd havc changed fronr the role of maega, which he had performed four y.ui, before, to that of nakaza'I soon realised that in an unusuar manner he combined in himself both roresat once. As a medium hc was.incomparably more majestic and powerfur than the passiveand nondescript figuies so often seen. At the same time he was his own *otzo. He had brought himself into his trance, and was clearly the undisputed reader of the party. what deity ir was that had spokenfo*o long. ^ I 9"q"ired Gakkai Reijin, he replied, a form er sendatsrz of the ontaie cult who had died some twenty years before. Nearly always the deity who possessed him was Gakkai Reijin, for with this spirit he stood in a relation of croseaffinityi Fiis first .call,, seventeen years before, had p9.t a spontaneous waking vision, overwhelmingly powerful, of the inscribed stone sei up to Gakkai Reijin at the fifth stage of the climb. At that time he had never climbed Mr oniake and never heard of Gakkai Reijin. But a month or two later he had ma.dethe pilgrimage and Io, there was the inscribed stone standing just as he had seenit in his vision. His ,to-, he told me, met for a sdancefour times in every month, when usually it was Gakkai Reijin who app.ur.i to guide and instruct them. But Mt ontakJitselfth.y.ii-b.a only once a year. Another interesting frrd which I encounteredin the hut by the lake was composed entirely of actors and, musicians. Their leader lvas Yoshimura Ijur6, the greatest living 292

style of chanting' whose .xporert, I was told, of the nagauta treasure'' work had been honoured as a 'formless national were party the in *tl young Sr:veraltall and good-looking eightylris pupils. The plty', *or<i *us an ancient man of l,,rrr with u torig beard but a physique .of .extraordinary ';trength una .giiity, *ho had madi ttit climb no less than daughter' liliy-Jne times.-The medium was the old man's taking me' tlty-t:ld strong, and Shewas very accomplished deity was ,,rrly thirty secondsto become ggsselsedi flgit He was llirkuryfrsan, a Jrugo" who lived in the third lake. in his irrtallible, one of the young men assuredme' especially them wcather forecasts.O"fy tit aty before he had warned they or hut r0 hurry as quickly us they could to the sixth inside would get wet. S;;. .tot'gh, hardly were they safely declared tle hut than it t.gun to"rui" heavily' Never' he important with great intensity]woutd-he dream of taking any His ,,tcf Tn his life *iinorrt first consulting Hakuryflsan. Hakuryfrsan' (:lrreerasanagauta chanterhad beenapPr?Ye.qby bride' his would came, time right ,urd. so, *hri the fourth stage Later I u.co-puii.a this party down.'o *t waterfall, 0lI the Kurosawa route. There und.er the Fudd to they said, Hakurytsan would make his last appearance kimonos or rlr.*. They all changed into white loincloths jets of water ,rnd made their ;y io the place where three ancient li:ll from an embrasurehollowed out of the rock- The here' stand ,,,o*g:'o, clad only in u loi"cloth, was the.nT' to stood ,l'he heas wate. spt^hed offhis head with such force, as though rvith his white beard reciting spells,that it seemed then medium :r halo of white ltgh;shone JU tont a him. The wild looking rrrck his place, standing under the jet of water wet her over ,rnd strang., ir., black- hair streaming {9*t stood man kimono and her eyesopen and starin[' The old und shouting, pointing his fingers i' front of her ;;;"ti.,g :rt her in the t,"UUi"g *,ritu*' When shi was fully entrance4 a nnat .ach member of the party came in turn to recerve uv !h-' rre'ediction from Hakuryflsan. This was bestowed rubs with r.edium in the form of tirt'mps on the back and lrcr rosary. Thewholepartythusblessed,themediumwasrestoredto and set off 6erself,the puriy fhurrged into dry white clothes 293

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io lu"ir, previously bespoken,to catch the night train from Fukushima back to Toivo. I understoodrft.r*r.ds tlat thc ontake curt is popular among those whose ?rofession is the stage. A dancer of incredible elegance, Takehara Han, told me that she used until she was ov:r fifty to make the crimb every summcr, she showed me photographs of herself taken in the courseof the pilgrimage, and -I marvelled, ,.-r*t.rirrg my ow' dirty and dishevelled appearance,to see how she had madc her white attire seemfife an elegant mod,e designedr*.r"lr; for herself, and how, on the most exhaustingly steep and cindery slopes near the summit, she never lost her d,ancer,l immaculate grace and poise. In the small hours of the morning of August gth a magiu bonfire known as shinkasaiis lit on"the bari.n neck of land near the summit. It is one of the principal annuar rituars or. the ontake cu.lt, and in 1963 we \Mere warned that the hut was likely to be so crowded that night ;t,h pilgrims that the'e would be no space to lie do*"n. w. *orrd have to doze back-to-back irr- a sitting position. In fact thc crowds proved less than on an ordiniry night, since the news of a typhoon threatened off the coastof (ydshi had discorr..geJ people from making the climb. sleep *", ,.*.rtheless out or, the question, for alfnight long the sounds of flapping wands, jingling bells and buists ofchantirg ,,",u., ceased. New parties arrived in the darknessand paid their respectswitlr bells and mantras.to the irnage on the edge of the rake. The party ensconcedin the room above possessed an indefatigable medium, whose gutteral grunts ur,a ,*irtirrg wand continuecl uninterrupted' until past midnight. _ At r.3o a.m. " r*ru party sel out fromih" hrrt to walk to the place of the fire. The moon had risen rrigr, in the sky, almost perfectly round, and so bright tr,ut *. could follow rne rocky path round the mountain without needing any other light. r saw our shadowsfall, in single n., rurr,ura'i.urii Iong and black down the-rocky slope into the ravine, whire far beJo.w the peak of Mikas uyu^u, a symmetricar cone likc one of the straw hats of trre ai*rful, ,o*. like an island out of a sea of white mist. lvhen rve reached the prace where the fire was to be lit, 294

,Llready a great crowd of people were waiting, dressed .rrtirely in white. Three curious wooden circles, like an irrtricatelatticed woodhenge,rosea little higher than a man ,Lndabout ten feet across.I had examined them a few hours ,'urlier,in daylight, and had seenthat they were constructed .ntirely from the small slips of pine wood called gomagi,just Irig enough to accommodatea man's name, age and heart's rlcsire,written with a brush. Most of the wisheswere stereoryped and impersonal: freedom from illness, harmony at Irome,prosperity in the family business. They had all, many thousands of them, been carried up the mountainside on the previous day, and had been built into the circles by a team ,,[-believers a few hours beficre. Flaring torches lit up the three wooden rings and the white crowd of believersstretching up the hill behind, while lreforeus reared a craggy hill crowned with a great block of luva,like a fortressagainstthe moontit sky.Further along the skylinerose the black and antlered silhouette of the shrine. At two o'clock the patriarch of the sect, Mr Watanabe, :rppearedin front of the central circle. In a resounding voice lre read an invocation to the kami, making meanwhile lunges :rnd sweeps with a long sword. The crowd of believerson the lrillside broke into a chorus of chanting, ringing their bells to the rhythm of the chant. Two figures in white with long flaring torches then set light to the middle ring. The delicate latticework burst into llames, and soon the whole intricate structure was marvelIously visible, every tiny slip of wood showing red and rlistinct against the black. The two other wooden circles then caught fire, and soon the flamesleapt high into the sky, illuminating red and yellow the chanting crowd of people lrchind. For someten minutes the flamesburnt fiercely,then rlied down into red flickering rings. Several figures in white appeared and began to run' indeedscamper,round and round the dying circles.One of ttrem I recognised to be Mr Omomo. From my position on rhe hillside I could seethe figuresstill running as the flames rlied down to a glow, and the craggy landscapereturned to ils former lunar whiteness. By way of postscript, I append some notes from my last 295

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ascentol the mountain, in August 1967. In four years thc mountain had suffered devastating change. A largc ^ had been carved out of tho 'd"riveway' or motor road mountainside asfar asthe seventhstage,Tanohara. You nectl not walk at all, we were told, before Tanohara, and thcre you will find a comfortable hotel. What about the old road, we enquired. It is still there of course,they said, but no one usesit now. We set out to find the old road, and I saw at once that what they had said rvas true. Up the hairpin bends of the new road there roared a stream of traffic, taxis, cars, busel hired by kA, with straw hats and wooden poles projecting from the windows. A cloud of white dust hung like a pall over the track, obscuring the view of the mountain, thickly coating the trees and plants on either side. Along this road no one at all was actually walking. Nor was a single white figure to be seen on the old road, when at length after somedifficulty we found it. It led straight up the mountainside, out of the forest and over some high rolling hills covered with long grass and wild lilies. An ancient and desertedtrackway it now seemed,green underfoot and flanked on either side with flowers and clusters of inscribedstones. It was utterly quiet. No one seemedto have trodden there for years, and the call of the hokek2d bird was the only sound to be heard. The pilgrims were a mile or so away, whirled upwards in dust and noise. At Tanohara, in place of the sprawling wooden hut in thc f,orestthat I remembered from four years before, stood a streamlined concrete structure, in the midst of a concrete car park full of taxis and buses.Above this point everyone had to walk. But even here were significant signsof change. We had not been going long before we encountered an enormousftdfrom Kyoto, 4oo strong and led by a huge man reminiscent of a Kabuki actor or sumd wrestler. He stood on a rock at the side of the path, bellowing the rokkon shdjo chant in a voice which seemedsupernaturally resonant until I saw that he was in fact shouting through a microphone attached to a powerful loudspeaker. His huge flock moved slowly and ponderously upwards. They had no medium, we were told. Their leader always told them what to do. 296

'I'hat night we saw him again at the Shinkasai' itself also sceneof ,ignificantly changed' Gone.*?',the r1d-11l:nnt voices rising in the tirur yearc U.for",-ittl """ided' human oi fir. fiercely burning, the pariarch rrroonlit air, tlr.e;*r iatticed flames. Instead, l,r.andishinghis ,,"Jra before the the blue flash ,lominating the ,."*t, was the microphotg'. television searc6light' ,,f cameras,the ,.rr.f.r* beam of the from tf* voice of the actor-wrestler llugely .*ptin.J, introwarning' admonishing' lr.yoto ..ur.I.rrl-y'thuttt"d, of the iite to the crowd sur' step ,lLrcing, explainingevery. explains a baseball ,.'unding him, u-, u r^dio cbmmentator had destroyed or an unfamiliar ceremony.Ruthlesslyhe voice, its enchant'ratch rhe magi" ortr,"li,.. n.rore his magnified beauty into 'information" its powe-r and rnent *ith.r.J sounds' and slrrivelled,into commonplace movements rvould be a there confid'ently !"ld' Very soon, i-*ut mountain' No one tilCfdriqu" 'rop.*ot' io the top of the. the.craters would be rvould then hir. to climb ut uil, and amplified mu{1 rilled witrr teahouses,from whicir cheerful Eventually the trances would rvould banisll--io"tti"t"' would join ittt company of those rlisappear and i;;;;k; only the odd name other erstwhile holy mountains-whtre the lay climber inscribed stone sunives to remind or the od.d. thatinthepasttheground"beneathhisfeetwascorrsidered might tre ad there' so holy that oniy tnJa"fy purified

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