Shugendō

mountain in Nagano and Gifu Prefectures, Japan

mountain in Ishikawa and Gifu Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Toyama Prefecture, Japan

right|thumb|from the picture album "Kannon Reigen ki"

is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, especially in Southeast Asia where monks are mummified after dying of natural causes, it is believed that it is only in Japan where monks have induced their own deaths by starvation.

volcano in Akita and Yamagata Prefectures, Japan

mountains in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Nara Prefecture, Japan

offering made into fire in Indian religions

mountain in Osaka and Nara Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Nara Prefecture, Japan

thumb| practitioners (Shugenja) in the mountains of Kumano, Mie ([[Kōshō Tateishi)]] thumb|upright|Statue of En no Gyōja, the founder of . [[Kamakura period, c. 1300–1375, Kimbell Art Museum.]] thumb|upright|Stairs on the way to Ōminesan-ji, the holy site of '' thumb|upright|Acala|Fudō Myōō silk scroll from [[Daigo-ji (Kyoto), a major Shingon temple and site]] thumb|upright|Zaō Gongen'', a key deity in , in Kinpusen-ji Temple

is the head temple of a branch of the Shugendō religion called Kinpusen-Shugendō in Yoshino district, Nara Prefecture, Japan. According to tradition, it was founded by En no Gyōja, who propagated a form of mountain asceticism drawing from Shinto, Taoism and Buddhist beliefs. Along with Ōminesan-ji Temple, it is considered the most important temple in Shugendō.

thumb|En no Gyōja holding a khakkhara, Japan, [[Kamakura period, polychromed wood]]

mountain in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Kyoto city, Japan

mountain in the Kongō Range straddling the prefectural border between Chihayaakasaka, Osaka and Gose, Nara in Japan.

mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

thumb|250px|Nikkō Tōshō-gū enshrines [[Tokugawa Ieyasu under the posthumous name of Tōshō Daigongen.]]

mountain in Hyogo and Okayama Prefectures, Japan

is an important temple of the Shugendō religion in the village of Tenkawa, Yoshino district, Nara prefecture, Japan. It is located at the Sanjōgatake peak of Mount Ōmine. Along with Kinpusen-ji, it is considered the most important temple in Shugendō. From the early Heian period to the present, women have been prohibited from entering the sacred mountain. The precincts were designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2002.

right|thumb|from the picture album "Kannon Reigen ki" thumb|The autumn moon at Ishiyama (石山の秋月), by Hiroshige thumb|At night during Koyo

Japanese societal customs barring women from sacred places

mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Ōsaka and Wakayama prefecture, Japan

mountain range in Japan

mountain in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

is a historical tradition of ninjutsu known as the "School of the Hidden Door", allegedly founded during the Oho period (1161–1162) by ( ), who learned his original fighting techniques from a Chinese monk named Kain Dōshi. However, the history and early lineage of Togakure-ryū may be impossible to verify due to the antiquity of the time period and its claimed historicity has been disputed by Watatani Kiyoshi, writer for the Bugei Ryūha Daijiten. After Togakure, the title of Sōke (head of school) was recorded by Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu to have been passed down through other practitioners that

Shinto shrine in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Shinto shrine in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

The kuji-in () or jiǔzìyìn (), also known as Nine Hand Seals, is a system of mudras and associated mantras that consist of nine syllables. The mantras are referred to as kuji (), which literally translates as nine characters. The syllables used in kuji are numerous, especially within Mikkyō (Japanese Esoteric Buddhism).

mountain in Japan

mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Osaka and Nara Prefecture, Japan

pilgrimage route in Wakayama, Japan

thumb|250px|Amida-do, An Important Cultural Property thumb|250px|Main Hall

mountain in Japan

Shinto shrine in Aomori Prefecture, Japan

is a Buddhist temple in the Shogoin-Nakamachi neighborhood of Sakyō-ku in the city of Kyoto, Japan. Its honzon is an image of Fudō Myōō. It is also called the , and is the central temple of the Honzan school of Shugendō in Japan, and is the head temple that governs the "Kasumi" (regional organizations that control Shugendō practitioners) throughout the country. It boasted high status. Of the 37 head priests up until the Meiji period, 25 were from the imperial family and 12 were from the regent family. In the late Edo period, it was used as a temporary imperial palace twice, and in due to this

mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan

Shinto shrine in Tateyama, Nakaniikawa-district, Toyama prefecture, Japan

small black box worn on the foreheads of Yamabushi or Tengu in Japanese mythology

Shinto shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

thumb|250x250px|Lodging in Mount Haguro|Hagurosan thumb|250x250px|The former lodging house at Yakuo-ji (Minami, Tokushima)|Yakuoji, the 23rd sacred site of The 88 sacred sites of Shikoku. A shukubo is a temple lodging in Japan that allows visitors to stay overnight within a Buddhist temple. Originally these facilities were designed to accommodate only monks and worshippers, but nowadays, in response to declining numbers of monk visitors, most facilities accept general tourists. Some temples, such as the ones in Mount Kōya, have open-air baths with onsen. Shukubo are now considered semi-secular