Shinto-Buddhist Syncretism

The syncretic blend of Shinto and Buddhism, evolving from the Nara period on, represents an important development in both the religious consciousness and the history of Japan. While aiming at the harmonious coexistence of the two distinctive religious systems, the one indigenous, the other imported, the syncretic approach bred an array of new beliefs and observances based on what each component could offer. In this cross-fertilization, innovative notions about the divinities in both the Shinto and the Buddhist pantheon were spawned, with new dimensions being added to their nature, attributes, and power. New cults emerged focusing on ever more complicated combinations of these supernatural beings. The syncretic interaction caused the yamabushi and hijiri (holy men) traditions

to proliferate, which in turn accelerated the process of amalgamation of the two religions.^[66] Pilgrimage was similarly reinforced and also began to thrive, firmly establishing itself as an integral part of Japanese religious practice.

Syncretic advancement, however, was not limited to the religious realm. Its influence spread to other areas of culture, including the arts and liter-ature. The pictorial representation of sacred geography in terms of syncretic mandala is one distinctive by-product in the field of fine arts, for example, while the engi (origin myths of temples and shrines) experienced a similar efflorescence in the literary sphere.^[67] Ryojin hisho too, especially the shiku no kamiuta , reveals how the poetic imagination was inspired by the syncretic movement and how that energy was harnessed in lyrical modes.

Among motifs related to Shinto-Buddhist syncretism in Ryojin hisho , three occur with marked frequency: the concept of honji suijaku (original nature/trace manifestation), pilgrimage, and yamabushi and hijiri cults. Occupying considerable space in shiku no kamiuta , these topics convey another layer of religiosity embodied in the anthology.

Honji Suijaku

According to honji suijaku , indigenous Japanese deities are manifestations (suijaku , the traces left behind) of Buddhist divinities (honji , the original nature). Practically speaking, this meant selecting important gods from the Buddhist tradition and matching them with Shinto gods (kami ), then endowing the latter with the functions and capacities of the former. The deliberate effort to establish a correlation between Shinto and Buddhism resulted in the native kami being elevated to a metaphysical status they never had prior to contact with Buddhism. Simultaneously, it naturalized or acculturated Buddhism to the existing Japanese religious framework and outlook.

In what manner does the philosophy of honji suijaku find expression in Ryojin hisho ? We begin with a shiku no kamiuta that is in itself a poetic abstract of the concept:

This song establishes a correspondence between the powerful Shinto shrine of Hie and Enryakuji Temple, the center of the Tendai Buddhist sect in Japan. To present this syncretic relationship, the song plays on two phrases. The first one, consisting of ato (trace, jaku ) and tare (to drop, descend, sui ), renders honji suijaku in the Japanese vernacular. The second one is based on wako dojin (softening the radiance and becoming one with dust), a phrase used to explain the Buddha's historical appearance as a manifestation of the cosmic principle.^[69] In the third line of the song, namely, we find the words ko (light, hikari), wa (to soften, yawarage ), and jin (dust, chiri ), incorporating the meaning of wako dojin in one line. Thus the song suggests that the buddhas, having relinquished their transcendental existence (wako ), incarnated themselves as Shinto divinities (dojin )—synonymous with honji suijaku —and are working to spread the Buddha's teaching.

Of the diverse forms of syncretism found in Ryojin hisho , the Tendai-Hie correspondence, in which both major and subsidiary shrines in the Hie complex were matched with various Buddhist temples, is most conspicuous.^[70] Its prominence may in part reflect the strength of the actual alliance between the Tendai establishment and the Hie Shrine.

Traditionally, the Hie Shrine complex has been known as the Sanno (mountain king) system because of its links to the worship of nearby Mount Hiei. It consisted of twenty-one shrines, which were ranked ac-cording to primary, secondary, and tertiary status. With the rise of syncretism, all these shrines and their respective kami were matched with Buddhist divinities. The primary shrine of Omiya (Nishimotomiya), for instance, was linked with the historical Buddha; Ninomiya (Higashimotomiya) was identified with Yakushi; Shoshinji (Usamiya), with Amida; Hachioji (Oji or Ushiomiya), with Thousand-armed Kannon; and Ichido (Hayao), with Fudo.^[71] The Hie complex thus came to embody a comprehensive and elaborate systematization of Shinto-Buddhist syncretic inter-actions. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Sanno system was well represented in the jinbun (songs sung to Shinto deities) subsection of the shiku no kamiuta.

The following shiku no kamiuta , which identifies a number of shrines from the Hie complex as major Buddhist divinities, is a classic example of the Tendai-Sanno syncretism:

The song approximates a syncretic mandala in verse. First, the focus is on the top-ranking shrine of Omiya, where the most important ritual activities in the Hie complex were conducted. Accordingly, it is matched with Eagle Peak, the fabled site of the Buddha's preaching of the Lotus Sutra. The attention then shifts to the eastern base—that is, Ninomiya—which is identified with the Bodhi tree under which Sakyamuni achieved bud-dhahood. By specifically naming Sakyamuni and Yakushi (Buddha's attendant on his left), the verse reinforces that the two shrines are Omiya and Ninomiya. The third shrine, mentioned but not specified, is thought to be Shoshinji, which is paired with Amida. And the song ends by identifying Hachioji with the Thousand-armed Kannon, rounding out the Sanno syn-cretic mandala.^[73]

In contrast to that sweeping presentation of the entire Sanno system, the next song dwells at some length on each of a handful of shrines within the Hie complex:

Here, the phrase shujo (all living beings), a Buddhist diction, is appropriated to express the importance of the Shinto deity Ichido in the lives of the people, thereby establishing the Shinto-Buddhist correspondence through lexical borrowing.

The following song explicitly equates the main shrine of the Sanno complex, Omiya, with the Buddha, and its precincts with the Eagle Peak:

In some songs, the process of equation is reversed and Buddhist gods become part of the Shinto pantheon. In the next song, although the shrine in question is not specified, we can presume it is the Marodo Shrine in the Hie complex, which is identified with the Eleven-headed Kannon:

Syncretic rhetoric operates even in songs that praise the beauty of nature. In the following shiku no kamiuta , the scenic beauty of Lake Biwa in Omi region is praised from a Tendai-Sanno point of view. Here, the lake is described as a pond in the paradise of Yakushi, who supposedly resides on Mount Hiei (called Mount Tendai). The rich imagery is drawn from the usual Buddhist description of paradise, resulting in the Buddhistic sacralization of the Japanese secular landscape:

Similarly in another shiku no kamiuta , Mount Kinbu, the center for mountain asceticism, is perceived as the Tusita Heaven, the abode of Maitreya, and becomes a setting for the syncretic interaction of a female shaman (the speaker) and a pair of Buddhist monks:

The song depicts syncreticism in action. When the female shaman failed in her performance of the Shinto ritual task, the Buddhist priests took over and successfully carried it through. In this cooperation, Shinto and Buddhism are melded—though the song may seem to suggest the sha-man's surprise and wonder at the superior power of the monks.

Syncretism marks the Shinto shrines in the Kumano area as well, whose major divinities likewise were matched with those in the Buddhist pantheon. The Kumano sanzan (Kumano triad), for example—Hongu (Ketsumiko-gami), Shingu (Hayatamamiya), and Nachi (Yui no Miya)—were paired with Amida, Yakushi, and the Thousand-armed Kannon, respectively. Accordingly, the triad was also called Kumano sansho gongen (the three avatars of Kumano).^[75] Here, the term gongen means the Buddha's incarnation in the borrowed form of kami and so is equivalent to suijaku . Gradually, the Kumano syncretism absorbed nine additional locally worshiped Shinto divinities, allotting to each of them a Buddhist counterpart; they were called Kumano juni gongen (the twelve avatars of Kumano).^[76] Knowledge of this syncretic development in Kumano is reflected in the following shiku no kamiuta on Nyakuoji, who corresponds to the Eleven-headed Kannon:

The light tone and even the meaning of the song derive from two key words: waka (young), in the name of the bay, appears also in its sinicized version, nyaku , as part of the name of the shrine. The semantic interplay between the two words lends further depth to the song: we now see "a young lord, residing on the young bay, who will not be affected by the passage of time."

The next shiku no kamiuta is based on an implied correspondence

between the Shinto deity of the Nyakuoji Shrine and the compassionate Kannon:

This song is reminiscent of homon uta no. 37, in which Kannon is compared to a rafter.

Given the dominance of the honji suijaku concept in Ryojin hisho songs, especially in shiku no kamiuta , we can see that by the late Heian period the syncretic view of Buddhism and Shinto was spreading rapidly among the masses.^[78] To their credit, some shiku no kamiuta display a firm command of honji suijaku and even manage a certain degree of poetic conceit—no small feat, considering the difficulty of establishing correct correspondence between the various divinities, particularly in such a limited space. These shiku no kamiuta highlight the double religious world in which their poets lived and sang—their own religious internationalism, so to speak.

Popular Pilgrimage

Like many religious practices, the pilgrimage is a mechanism created to bring men into close contact with the divine. What makes the pilgrimage unique is its requirement that devotees physically separate themselves from their familiar, mundane environment and subject themselves to a ritualistic regimen in specific locations far from home. That is, whereas other religious observances, such as prayer, scripture reading, and fasting, can be carried out at home, a pilgrimage is not legitimate until a believer has left home and stayed in sacred sites.

Devotional journeying has a long history in Buddhism. The earliest significant historical precedent for pilgrimage in the Buddhist tradition is generally attributed to King Asoka (ca. 268-233 B.C. ) of India, who reportedly erected numerous sacred stupa and paid homage to them through periodic visits.^[79] Other celebrated Buddhist pilgrims in East Asia include Hsüan-tsang (596-664) of T'ang China, who went to India, and Saicho, Kukai, Ennin, and Enchin of the early Heian period, all of whom endured difficult journeys to China and then made numerous pilgrimages to sites

within that country. By their personal examples, these Japanese priests are believed to have begun the Buddhist pilgrimage tradition in Japan.

The practice of pilgrimage in Japan combined native mountain worship with the Buddhist focus on visiting sacred locales. It was further reinforced by the honji suijaku notion, in which the mountain kami took on the physical manifestations of Buddhist divinities. Therefore, "pilgrimages to these mountains, accompanied and guided by the experienced mountain ascetics, were believed to bring favours from both the Shinto and Buddhist divinities simultaneously."^[80] The making of pilgrimages reached its zenith toward the end of the Heian period, coinciding with the wide spread of Amidism, which, as we have seen, identified the Kumano area with Ami-da's Pure Land and the southern seashore of that region with Kannon's Mount Potalaka. Even within the sacred compounds, syncretic religious vision regulated the view of the holy ground:

In these mountains, certain areas around the temple are designated as representing jigoku ("hell") and gokuraku ("pure land" or "paradise"); worshipers are expected to go through the former before entering the latter. In this manner the historic Buddhist notion of perpendicular cosmology, consisting of the three levels of heaven, earth, and underworld, has been reinterpreted to fit into the indigenous religious view of the Japanese.^[81]

As a rule, pilgrimage sites in Japan were tucked away deep in the mountains or perched on nearly inaccessible precipices, as in the mountains of Yoshino and Kumano to the south of the capital. These forbidding locations required of the pilgrims determination, physical strength, firm belief in the undertaking, and sometimes even their lives. The popular expression mizu no sakazuki (the farewell cup of water), referring to the last drink shared by a pilgrim with those left behind, emerged from this recognition that the traveler might not return alive.^[82]

In Ryojin hisho , various aspects of pilgrimage are revealed. One dominant theme concerns the physical hardship of such journeys; this is exemplified in four clustered songs in the shiku no kamiuta section, all of which are related to Kumano pilgrimage. For instance:

Here the play on the honji suijaku relationship between the avatar (Kumano Hongu) and Amida, conjured up by the reference to lotus-blue eyes, makes the pilgrim's plea doubly beseeching, hinting at the difficulties he or she expects to encounter along the way.

Another shiku no kamiuta on the pilgrimage to Kumano expresses the pilgrim's hardship but with an imaginative conceit:

Even a short pilgrimage from the capital to the Yawata Shrine, another name for the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, was not easy, as this song suggests:

Here, too, we find evidence of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, this time in the speaker's address of Hachiman, the powerful Shinto military god, as "Great Bodhisattva."^[84] Furthermore, the speaker's qualms about the pilgrimage expressed in the phrase mairan to omoe do mo (though I would like) connects this shiku no kamiuta with the preceding song in terms of mood and content.

The best-known pilgrimage sites, besides those on the way to Kumano, were on the long circuit routes of the Saikoku Thirty-three Pilgrimage (Saikoku sanju-san reijo ) and the Shikoku Eighty-eight Pilgrimage (Shikoku hachiju-hachi reijo ).^[85] The Saikoku pilgrimage, which comprehended thirty-three temples of Kannon, was especially popular among common-ers.^[86] As they traveled, the pilgrims sang rhythmic chants, which often

included lists of holy sites they had visited or intended to visit.^[87] In Ryojin hisho , the shiku no kamiuta subsection called reigensho uta (songs on miraculous places) is noted for its collection of such songs. For example the following song lists in catalog fashion some of the stops along the Saikoku pilgrimage route:

The longest song in Ryojin hisho , no. 314, is in fact such a pilgrimag route "guide map." It lists important sites and objects on the way to the Kiyomizu Temple, one of the stops on the Saikoku circuit. Although some names and places are unidentifiable now, the list suggests that the rout was something quite memorable:

Occasionally pilgrimage route songs focus on places for sightseeing or secular diversion along the way—including even locales where asobi -type female entertainment could be found. Apparently, the boundary between the sacred and profane was rather fluid for the pilgrims. The following song, which details the route to Horin Temple, located in Arashiyama in the western outskirts of the Heian capital, a pleasure resort known for its cherry blossoms and autumn leaves, is one example:

Some pilgrimage songs emphasize the positive by outlining the material rewards resulting from the difficult undertaking:

By emphasizing this-worldly, concrete benefit, this and similar shiku no kamiuta may have sought to encourage the act of pilgrimage by relieving the travelers of worry about both physical and mental hardships. Like the Buddhist songs that stress the historical, human aspect of the Buddha and the cultic power of Kannon, Yakushi, and Jizo, these songs emphasize the secularly or more pragmatically meritorious side of religion.

Cults of Hijiri and Yamabushi

Those who made pilgrimages and observed asceticism as part of their profession were hijiri (holy men), yamabushi (mountain ascetics), and shugyoja (those who undergo austerities; also known as shugenja , exor-

cists), all practitioners of shugendo , mountain asceticism.^[92] Historically as a group they shunned the official Buddhist establishment, which was closely allied with the ruling class, choosing instead to serve the common people. Their unorthodox attitude toward their religious calling was ex-pressed in their refusal to receive formal ordination, which only the official Buddhist institutions administered. Many of them, including such charismatic leaders as En no Shokaku (or En no Gyoja, b. 634) and Gyogi (668-749), to whom the origin of the hijiri tradition is usually traced, concerned themselves exclusively with the welfare of the masses.^[93]

The ascetics' practice was to retreat into the rugged mountains and suffer extremely harsh privations to become empowered with supernatural abilities. The term yamabushi , meaning "one who lies down on a mountain," alludes to these trials. Underlying this form of asceticism is a fusion of magico-religious mountain worship and Buddhism, as Ichiro Hori enunciates:

The mountain is ... believed to be the world of the spirits and of the deities, buddhas, or bodhisattvas, where shamans and ascetics must undergo the austerities of hell to receive the powers and blessings of paradise and where souls of the dead also must undergo initiation in order to enter paradise or Buddha's Pure Land. Shugen-do ... was built on just these primitive but fundamental common beliefs in mountains.^[94]

Thus, shugendo is yet another expression of the Shinto-Buddhist syncretism.

In fact, the mountain ascetics made use of various Buddhist and Shinto practices and worshiped numerous divinities whose interrelationships were established by the honji suijaku discourse. For instance, one of the main gods of shugendo , Fudo, is appropriated from the Shingon pantheon. And Kongozao gongen (the Diamond Zao Avatar), who is said to have endowed En no Gyoja with magical power on Mount Kinbu, is worshiped as a primary divinity by yamabushi in the Mount Kinbu area; moreover, he is supposed to have as his original bodies the Buddha, Kannon, and Mai-treya.^[95] The syncretic sacred geography also plays a large role in shugendo , providing the sites for these ascetics' trials. The whole mountain range from the Yoshino to Kumano, the cradle of shugendo , for example, is considered the dual mandala of Kongokai (the Diamond Realm, representing the wisdom of Dainichi and his efforts to destroy all kinds of illusion) and Taizokai (the Matrix Realm, symbolizing the teachings of Dainichi), the two diagrammatic schemes of the cosmos central to esoteric

Shingon symbolism and ritual practices.^[96] En no Gyoja, ascribed as the founder of mountain asceticism in Japan, is linked to a number of shugendo practice sites as well, and Ryojin hisho songs that deal with the subject of hijiri or yamabushi have him as an almost indispensable presence. The following song, for instance, which mentions important Heian-period centers of asceticism, features this combination of syncretic sacred geography and cultic worship of En no Gyoja:

Omine is known as the center of the mountain ascetics, with its highest peak, Mount Kinbu, associated with En no Gyoja. Mount Shosha refers to Enkyoji Temple in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, founded by Shoku Shonin and considered to be the Tendai center in western Japan. The temple is the twenty-seventh stop on the Saikoku pilgrimage route. During the insei period its reputation as an ascetic center became widely known; and incidentally, its refectory was built by Emperor Go-Shirakawa in 1174.^[97]

A number of songs in Ryojin hisho , especially among the shiku no kamiuta , exhibit keen interest in hijiri and yamabushi , the characteristic attitude being one of curiosity, fascination, and occasionally awe. In a manner quite different from its treatment of Buddhist figures, the an-thology considers this group of nameless people as a class rather than as individuals, closely examining their modes of life, favorite haunts, and the nature of their asceticism. A common technique is to list ascetic centers, usually with little subjective comment; frequently the names are obscure or refer to places that no longer exist, though they may have been thriving gathering places for yamabushi at the time when these songs were com-posed. The task of deciphering these songs is therefore often far from straightforward. A pair of companion songs, which present the extensive network of ascetic centers, illustrates this point:

Mino refers to Takianji Temple, located in Mino City, Osaka Prefecture, said to have been founded by En no Gyoja. Katsuo refers to the Katsuo Temple, also located in Mino City; it is the twenty-third stop on the Saikoku pilgrimage route and is known for its scenic beauty. Wanifuchi refers to Gakuenji Temple, located in Hirada City, Shimane Prefecture. Legend has it that the temple was founded by the priest Chishun Shonin at this location after the water from its valley miraculously cured the eye disease of Empress Suiko (r. 592-628). The name of the temple, which means "Crocodile Pool," originated in a story that when Chishun Shonin accidentally dropped a Buddhist utensil into the pool, a crocodile emerged from the water and brought it back to him. Hi no Misaki Shrine is also located in Shimane Prefecture, to the northwest of Izumo Shrine. Consisting of two shrines, with Susano o no Mikoto (the upper shrine) and Amaterasu (the lower shrine) as the main deities of worship, it competed for prestige with Gakuenji Temple.^[98]

Katsuragi is a rugged mountain range between Osaka and Nara prefectures on which En no Gyoja exercised asceticism. Ishi no Tsuchi, located in the eastern part of Ehime Prefecture, is the highest mountain on Shikoku Island. It, too, is associated with En no Gyoja, and sources relate that Kukai practiced asceticism here also.^[99]

These two songs map out the ascetic centers in the south and west of Japan; they also point to the prominence of Kumano in mountain asceticism. The sites mentioned embrace all three types of pilgrimage classified

by Joseph Kitagawa: pilgrimage to a sacred mountain, pilgrimage based on faith in certain divinities, and pilgrimage based on faith in charismatic figures.^[100] The juxtaposition of shrines and temples on such a grand scale not only portrays the Japanese landscape as a sacred mandala, in the Shinto-Buddhist syncretic mode, but also conveys the wide spread of mountain asceticism during the Heian period.

A greater consecration of the Japanese national geography occurs in songs that cover far larger areas, extending from remote corners of the eastern regions to the far western provinces. Some of the sacred places are associated with unusual natural features, such as hot springs or volcanoes, or with supernatural events from Japan's mythico-historical past. Thus a pilgrimage was not simply a religious exercise, but a cultural and historical journey into the national heritage. On the level of artistic craft, the following song is distinctive in its consistent listing of provinces, with one ascetic center per province being singled out, as if it were representative of the whole province:

Hashiriyu (meaning "hot running water") refers to the Izusan Shrine located on Mount Izu in Shizuoka Prefecture, its name being derived from a hot spring in the mountain. The Togakushi (Hidden Gate) Shrine is located on Mount Togaku in Nagano Prefecture. Mount Togaku is considered to be the rock gate that Ame no tachikara o no Mikoto removed from the rock grotto in which Amaterasu was hiding and hurled down to the lower world. Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture has long been regarded as a sacred realm because of its sporadic volcanic eruptions. Daisenji Temple, located on the precipitous Mount Daisen in Tottori Prefecture, is said to have been founded by Gyogi. Nariai Temple, located in Kyoto-Fu, is the twenty-eighth stop on the Saikoku pilgrimage route and is known as one of its most scenic spots. The name of the temple has its origins in a miraculous story related to Kannon. A monk who was living on the mountain was on the brink of starvation owing to a heavy snow, when

suddenly a deer appeared before him and died. The monk ate it and was brought back to life; but to his horror, he discovered that the wooden Kannon statue he worshiped had fallen to the ground bleeding. As the monk wept in utter shame, realizing that he had eaten part of the statue, Kannon's wound was healed and the statue was restored to its former state (nari-au )—hence the name of the temple. Muroto refers to Hotsumisaki Temple located on the seashore of Muroto City at the southeastern tip of Kochi Prefecture facing the Pacific Ocean. As the celebrated site of Kukai's enlightenment, it is the twenty-sixth stop on the Shikoku pilgrimage route. Shido Temple, located in Kagawa Prefecture facing Awaji Island across the straits, is the oldest temple in the eastern Sanuki area and the eighty-sixth stop on the Shikoku pilgrimage route.^[101]

With these songs one gains an understanding of the complex religious vision of the late Heian period, which sees the country in terms of syncretic sacred manifestations and epiphanic contact points. At the time they were circulated, they may have helped the audience view their lives in the broader setting of religious and cultural tradition. In addition, they may have spurred curiosity about geographic areas beyond the capital or the listeners' home regions.^[102] In the larger context of the Japanese literary tradition, songs about ascetic centers may have been the forerunners of Muromachi-period pilgrimage songs such as "Kumano sankei" (Kumano Pilgrimage), which were presented on a much larger scale than shiku no kamiuta .^[103]

Songs on hijiri and yamabushi often take the audience to the hidden side of their austerities. These ascetic exercises included fasting, abstention from drinking water, gathering firewood, hauling water from the mountaintop, standing under a frigid waterfall, and even hanging upside down by a rope over a mountain precipice.^[104] Sometimes solitary confinement for extended periods in a cave was prescribed. The underlying goal of all this physical discipline was to gain control over one's own body and spirit, thereby gaining complete freedom from limiting human conditions.

Among the trials thus endured, the severest and most demanding occurred in the mountains in the depths of winter. It was often thought that unless an ascetic spent a winter undergoing self-privation in a mountain cave, he could never be a full-fledged yamabushi .^[105] The following song offers a glimpse of the extreme hardships of winter asceticism that push human endurance to its limit:

Here nature, once the ascetic's source of support, has become a most exacting testing ground, demanding utter stoicism. The song depicts the state of complete physical deprivation through which the yamabushi ac-quires supramundane power.

The next song reveals that the ascetics also faced more insidious spiritual temptations initiated by the devil. The power of evil was presumably so overwhelming that the ascetics prevailed over it only with difficulty, whereupon they obtained their supernatural potency:

As this song suggests, the invincibility often associated with holy men came from their successful struggle against powers at odds with their spiritual goals.

The pilgrimages made by hijiri and yarnabushi , another mandatory component of ascetic exercises, is the subject of a number of shiku no kamiuta . The degree and circumstances of hardship encountered surpassed those of occasional pilgrims. In the following song, the ordeals ascetics confront in traveling through rough and isolated regions in the Noto Peninsula are conveyed plaintively:

Another song includes more specific details about the harsh regimen of asceticism and the ascetics' physical appearance:

Two points in this song are noteworthy. First, the group is obviously undergoing a form of water asceticism. These austerities, at first conceived as a preparatory cleansing, eventually came to be regarded as an effective means of obtaining ascetic power in itself and so found a regular place in ascetic ritual.^[108] Second, "walking," indicated here by the word fumu (to walk), was a prerequisite and indeed the very soul of ascetic practice, as it constitutes a symbolic negation of the profane.^[109] The song, by presenting the image of a group of ascetics constantly on the go, in robes bleached by the blazing sun and salty seawater, vividly evokes the painful process of self-negation that ascetics routinely underwent.

The interest of Ryojin hisho poems in hijiri and yamabushi extends into taking detailed stock of their personal belongings and paraphernalia—all eccentric, and sometimes even comical. Characteristically, attention is paid largely to the physical side of the ascetics' existence. Three songs, all sharing the same formula, konomu mono (favorite things), reveal the preferences of mountain ascetics in personal gear and foodstuffs; they also show the subsistence level of their existence, for their possessions are crude items taken directly from nature:

A yamabushi clad in the full apparatus was supposed to symbolize one of shugendo's main divinities, Fudo, as well as the Diamond and Matrix Realm mandalas.^[111] The peculiar appearance of these mountain men aroused a sense of awe and curiosity in onlookers, and likely played a large part in perpetuating the mystique about their supernatural powers.^[112]

The following pair of songs list mountain ascetics' food items, which may have medicinal or magical qualities to give their consumer unearthly powers. Yet the primary message of these songs concerns their grim asceticism based on the bare necessities of life:

Most of these items grow in the wild, and items such as the mushrooms are rare delicacies with distinctive aroma. Others, such as taro root, and possibly parsley and burdock, possess medicinal value and must have been eagerly sought after, since many hijiri were involved in healing practices.^[114] Some items may have been associated with the esoteric magical powers of mountains, the secrets of which were known only to hijiri .

The lifestyles of these charismatic hijiri and yamabushi were bound to

create awesome impressions on those who had contact with them. The following two songs succinctly express the uncanny and even eerie sensations they aroused, as if they led a ghostly life:

The enduring interest in hijiri and yamabushi in Ryojin hisho may owe much to the singers of the imayo . Among them, the miko were known to have been intimately linked to the ascetics; some worked with yamabushi as their assistants or were married to them,^[115] and thus would have had ample opportunity to observe the ascetic life-style and outlook or even take part in it. No doubt they injected their firsthand knowledge into imayo , which they then circulated. Therefore, one should not necessarily identify the speaker of a poem with the ascetics themselves; rather, the lyric voices of the songs may well be those of miko who stepped into the yamabushi's lives and sang in their place. The following song, fraught with amorous innuendo and flirtation, throws light on the intimacy binding miko and mountain ascetics:

Since the time is early spring, the yamabushi must be about to emerge from the harsh regimen of winter asceticism to renew a more mundane life—a liminal time when an invitation like this might be especially tempting.

The attraction a woman feels toward a young mountain ascetic is also the subject of this shiku no kamiuta :

The spectacle of the pure mountain ascetic seduced by the miko has its whimsical side, but it fits the complex syncretic world of religion in Ryojin hisho , where the line between sacred and profane, physical and spiritual, religion and art, and singers and their subjects is not always clear. Rather, these dualities often form a seamless whole, overlapping, coexisting, and interpenetrating.