Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics

Yoshiko OkuyamaUniversity of Hawai′i at Hilo

Abstract: This ethnographic research features Shugendō (mountain asceticism), Japan’s centuries-old, mystical tradition. I and approximately fifty other lay participants took part in a three-day Shugendō program for the secular. The program is physically demanding and takes secular trainees to three holy mountains in Yamagata, Japan, where they take part in the water purification and holy fire rituals in the mountain asceticism tradition. Using the theoretical framework of semiotics, I explicate the visual signifiers of this esoteric mysticism in the context of Shugendō teachings rep-resented in twenty photographs taken during the training. The purpose of this article is to promote semiotics as an analytical standpoint alternative to other approaches to studying culture, in this case, a Japanese religion sourced in my fieldwork. I argue that, living in today’s global age and visual culture, college students can and should benefit from learning about semiotics and developing visual literacy for their future career opportunities.

Keywords: semiotic analysis, Japanese mountain asceticism, Shugendō, photography, religious signifiers, cultural studies, visual literacy

Introduction

This article highlights my ethnographic research on Shugendō (moun-tain asceticism), Japan’s centuries-old, eclectic religion of mountain asceticism.1 Shugendō is a mystical tradition combining ancient Shinto,

esoteric Buddhism, and Taoism with the ancient beliefs of Animism and Shamanism. Because Shugendō’s principal philosophy lies in Japan’s ancient belief of mountain worship, its training takes place in the Dewa-Sanzan, three

1 The Hawai′i Council for the Humanities (HCH) supported this fieldwork and archival research in Japan in 2011. The HCH is a private non-profit educational organization established in 1972 as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

ISSN 0277-7126 The American Journal of Semiotics 29.1– 4 (2013), 17–38.doi: 10.5840/ajs2013291-41

18 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

sacred mountains clustered in the Dewa region of Yamagata, a prefecture located in the northeastern part of Japan.

The initial goal of my fieldwork was to experience some of Japan’s spiritual programs and visit the sacred sites available to lay people. I took hundreds of photographs documenting my own experiences with several religious training programs and sites in Japan.2 In order to focus on the visual representation of religious myths, I documented religiously symbolic objects and activities with my camera. Semioticians (e.g., Barthes 1977; Berger 2008; Katic 2012) as well as anthropologists (Hastrup 1993) are known to use visual representa-tions such as photographs to their methodological advantage in describing culturally iconic symbols. Although photographic images carry their own se-miotic significance different from that of films (Barthes 1977), photography’s static images can be more readily applied to augment academic text. Hastrup (1993) also wrote that the photographs she took at the fieldwork site later helped her recall the culturally important presence of the dogs, which were so much part of the landscape that she had forgotten about them. Similarly, my photographs helped me document the details of my fieldwork and reconnect to the particular emotions I experienced at specific moments in my journey. Thus, I attest to how photography can be a powerful tool for analyzing and writing about religious symbolism.3 For this article, I have selected to describe the visual symbolism of Shugendō.4

Program Description and ParticipantsOn August 5, 2011, I traveled to Yamagata to experience a Shugendō program designed for lay people. I participated in the program for research and for my own spiritual reasons, not to become a mountain ascetic. The program was intensive but short, requiring a full commitment of one weekend and the subsequent Monday. Over thirty years ago, two ascetics of this school of Shugendō developed the program for lay participants—ordinary people with regular jobs or family obligations. Because the schedule works well for lay

2 Some of the photos shown in this article are my own while others are the work of a professional photographer, Yoshio Wada, who kindly granted me permission to use his pho-tos. When the training became too challenging for me to take photos, Mr. Wada magically showed up and documented the rest of the program. His photos are marked with his name and copyright throughout the article.

3 Besides the semiotic approach to utilizing photography, I also adapted Scott Schnell’s method of fieldwork on Japanese religions. However, it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss its methodological advantages. Please see Schnell (2006) in the references.

4 In discussing Shugendō, another Japanese term commonly used is yamabushi. The word yamabushi literally means “those who lie in the mountain”. To Westerners, the term is usually translated as mountain ascetics. Thus, Shugendō is the name of the religion, and yamabushi refers to its followers.

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 19

participants, the program was attended by people from all over Japan. Only 60 people were selected out of over 200 applicants because of the potential danger of traveling through the mountains. Just like the syncretic nature of this religion, we were an eclectic group. A farmer, a retiree, a school teacher, a son of a Buddhist monk, a high school student wishing to be a disciple of a shaman, a Shinto priest curious about another faith, a college student preparing to be a maiden in the service of a Shinto shrine, and a young social worker contemplating a career switch were among the 56 people who made it through the program’s first day.

At the program’s orientation, the participants were introduced to two “mountain guides” (sendatsu), the program leaders guiding us throughout this three-day spiritual journey. Both were well-experienced, certified practitioners of Shugendō trained in the Dewa-Sanzan school of mountain asceticism. The Michihiko (chief leader) was Mr. Ota, and the younger one, Mr. Sato, was Sukehiko (assistant). The backgrounds of this group were diverse. There were young housewives interested in learning about this religion, a middle-aged lady who was one of the more seasoned practitioners, two elderly women whom the other participants described as bona fide “shaman” women, capable of conducting exorcisms, a high school student who wanted to become a sha-man, an experienced mountain climber who wanted to know firsthand how physically challenging this mystic religious training was, and so on. Some of these people joined the program to contemplate life or gain strength in confronting personal problems such as alcoholism or unemployment. Others were in search of an existential truth, which they hoped to find by climbing the sacred mountains. Some other participants honestly said that they joined mainly out of curiosity.

SemioticsFrom an academic standpoint, the symbolic elements that carry spiritual teachings are as valuable as my experience as a lay participant. In this article, a total of twenty photographic images of Shugendō are analyzed through the theoretical lens of semiotics in order to interpret the images’ symbolic meanings within this religious culture. My analysis focuses on architecture, objects, clothes, food, sound, and movement as well as on natural elements such as fire and water that are used in ceremonial activities.

What is the rationale for using semiotics as the theoretical lens of this article? And similarly, how is semiotics useful in analyzing the visual data that I gathered as a participant-observer in this religious program? To discern religious symbols represented in the photographed images and decipher their

20 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

metaphorical meanings, semiotics is a useful tool for the following reasons. First, this theoretical framework, which was developed by the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the American logician Charles Sanders Pierce through their own independent scholarly works, allows me to go straight into the analysis of symbolism—the signifiers and signifieds of Shugendō that carry religious significance. A sign consists of the signifier (form) and the signified (meaning). Thus, using the theory, I am able to show how to interpret embedded meanings associated with particular forms (e.g., shapes, colors, and texts) employed in Shugendō practices. Second, as Danesi (2007) states, semiotics has an infinite potential in its application to various academic disciplines. Thus, although the theory was initially applied to the subtopics of linguistics (e.g., semantics, syntax), it has been applied in other academic fields, including mythology (e.g., Barthes 1972) and religious studies (e.g., Yelle 2013). Probably, the theory has been most intensively and extensively applied to film studies (e.g., Berger 2008; Danesi 2002, 2008; Metz 1974; Monaco 2009; Wollen 1998).

However, when examining the religious symbolism of Japan’s mountain asceticism, what does semiotics do that other approaches do not? Because semiotics is designed to help us study a sign, a symbol that represents some-thing with which the symbol is associated, it is ideal to analyze material that contains religious symbolism. Furthermore, both language and religion are systems of signs. Because of my academic training as an applied linguist, I find an innate pleasure in identifying spiritual meanings encoded in religious signifiers. As I reviewed the photographic images of Shugendō, my analytical insights emerged more naturally through the approach of semiotics. Of course, other approaches such as ethnography might be sufficient if I were to simply describe my experience of this religious program in a Japanese cultural context. But semiotics is the only theoretical framework that allows me to go straight into the analysis of symbolism—the signifiers and signifieds of Shugendō that carry religious significance. In my perspective as a participant of the program, the symbolic elements that carry spiritual teachings are as important as the experience itself. As Yelle (2013) states, semiotics is “the discipline devoted to the systematic study of signs, symbols, and communication,” and this theoretical approach “can contribute to the elucidation of many religious phenomena” (Yelle 2013: 1). On many occasions, we secular participants of this Shugendō program were reminded not to just puppet what the trainers say or do but to visualize the activities as a way of communicating with the gods through certain gestures and prayer words. Thus, it makes logical sense for me to view the religious phenomena I observed and experienced in this

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 21

program “as a form of communication or rhetoric” and analyze it as “modes of semiosis” (Yelle 2013: 2).

How do you know my reading of a particular Shugendō object, image, or word is “accurate”? In other words, how do you know that my interpretations are valid? Fortunately, there have been academic publications about Shugendō doctrine and history both in Japanese (e.g., Aoki 2011; Miyake 2006; Naito 2007) and English (e.g., Holtom 1995; Jeremiah 2010; Miyake 2001). Being bilingual in those languages, I am able to access the information provided by those writers to augment my interpretations. In addition, I visited the museum of Shugendō and conducted interviews with two head priests of the program while I was in Yamagata. Thus, the narrative I provide in this article is not my subjective interpretation of the photographed images but is essentially a factual recounting of what I learned from the scholarly sources as well as from my interviews with the Shugendō priests.

Semiotic Analysis

Footwear and White RobesOne of the Shugendō signs is straw slippers called waraji, signifying the moun-tain ascetics’ long-distance walking (Figure 1). This old-fashioned footwear is still used in today’s Shugendō training. Along the highway to the summit of Mount Haguro where the headquarters of the program are located, there are many temples affiliated with this spiritual tradition. Near the entrance, these temples display a bundle of waraji worn by Shugendō followers in the distant past. The Michihiko and Sukehiko wore this traditional footwear throughout the program. But we, the lay participants of the program, walked in more comfortable and protective modern-day footwear such as sneakers and mountain boots except during the performance of certain rituals.

With the waraji slippers signifying the act of walking as a form of spiritual training in nature, we began a leisurely hike in the forest that soon turned into hours of mountaineering. We had been warned by the program brochures that the applicants must fulfill the following physical conditions: be able to perform sanzan-gake, or mountain-trekking, for about six hours per day with a total walking distance of 15 km; be able to climb the 2,446 steps to Mount Haguro’s main temple; be able to endure a cold-water ritual at the waterfalls; and be able to perform seiza (sitting erect with one’s legs folded properly). Before the trip, with my daily two-mile jog and occasional hike on Mauna Loa, I thought I was fit enough to meet the rigors of the program. Yet, less than halfway through the program, I discovered that my stamina was insuf-ficient for the hours of sitting in seiza, descending steep, slippery slopes of

22 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

the mountains, and soaking in icy water in a chilly forest. I found the water ritual the hardest to endure.

Another signifier of Shugendō is the pure white attire that resembles the death robe in Japanese Buddhist tradition (Figure 2). The death robe is the white kimono in which a deceased person in the coffin is typically clad during a wake. The man in the photo was one of the senior participants in their 70s and wore the full gear of the trainee: a straw hat, a wooden staff, a white kimono robe, a pair of white hakama pants and white socks with no pattern or logo. Most of us carried our personal items in modern-day back-packs in various colors and styles (Figure 3), but some participants brought pure white bags to match the attire. The color white implies hypothetical death, and according to Mr. Ueno, we would be “reborn” upon completing this spiritual training. For this eventual rebirth, we must first “die,” meta-phorically speaking.

At the program’s orientation for the participants, we changed to pure white robes, and our journey as the walking dead started on Mount Haguro. From the orientation center, we climbed the 2,446 steps to Mount Haguro’s summit in these religious garments. As we climbed, we passed some hiker groups. They stopped to take pictures of us, bowed to us, and even praised us with remarks such as “erai” (how respectable!) and “sugoi” (superior deed!) in Japanese. That made me chuckle because we had not done anything special to deserve such accolades. Except for a few who were repeating the program and on their way to becoming ordained Shugendō followers, we were ordinary people. Even though underneath the Shugendō attire, we were just like those hikers, the religious symbolism superficially elevated us above our ego-driven lives. The townspeople in Yamagata appeared to have great respect for the mountain ascetics because the training of real Shugendō followers is physi-cally and mentally rigorous. Their training takes place in fall, winter, or early spring, not warm times to seclude oneself in a mountain retreat for days. Besides the body-tormenting exercises and the sleep deprivation, the ascetics also endure a restricted diet, similar to the harsh training practices for monks in various sects of Japanese Buddhism. Because they must avoid consuming the meat of four-legged animals (e.g., cattle, pigs), the typical meal during the real Shugendō training consists of one cup of miso soup and one vegetable dish with rice. The whole point of the severe diet restriction for an extended period is to appreciate the fact that we are able to consume food for energy, said Mr. Ueno, who is not only the program’s co-founder but also a retired Shugendō trainer. He emphasized that the purpose of these austerities is to become totally aware and grateful for our life source. Wearing a similar white

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 23

garment, I felt as if I were cheating simply by adorning the symbolic attire of truly devoted mountain ascetics.

ArchitectureAs building structure may serve as a signifier of religious symbolism, Shugendō shows the architectural blend of Shinto and Buddhism. For example, the red torii-gate built at the summit of Mount Haguro (Figure 4) is a symbol of Shinto, the Japanese indigenous religion. The torii-gate signifies that you are now stepping into the realm of kami, the deities of Shinto. Near the gate there was also a large rock with a sacred straw rope lying around the top, another Shinto signifier (Figure 5). In this Shugendō school in Yamagata, Mount Haguro is the centerpiece of worship because, as legend has it, the founder of this school, Prince Hachiko, was led to this holy mountain by a mysterious three-legged bird, a spiritual guide dispatched by Haguro Gongen, the deity of the mountain. The summit houses the main shrine, the Ideha Shrine, and as you can see in the next photo, its business office also has a Shinto influence.

The rest of the buildings in the area are more in the architectural style common to Buddhism. For instance, the Shugendō prayer hall, built right next to the structure of the Ideha Shrine, has a massive thatched roof resembling the typical roof of a Buddhist temple (Figure 6). As shown in the photo, the structure also has a big bronze temple bell called Kenchi-no-kane. Among the shrines and other symbols of Shinto on Mount Haguro is yet another signifier of Buddhism: a five-story pagoda (Figure 7). The patchwork of two faiths within the shared space initially baffled me. However, in retrospect, it became clear that the evidence of architectural mixture does not simply result from the religious assemblage of Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism, and Shinto but rather is a signifier of the long, troubled history of persecution and marginalization of Shugendō by the central government.5

5 The founder of Shugendō asceticism, En no Gyōjya, was persecuted as a cult leader by the aristocrats of the Heian period (794–1185). Shugendō was banned by the government during the Meiji period (1868–1912), and the practitioners were forced to convert to Shinto, donning the priestly attire and chanting Shinto prayers. Some hard-core devotees refused to comply; they went underground and continued to practice in secrecy. During this time, almost all Buddhist temples built on the mountain were destroyed and many precious Buddhist arti-facts were burned, stolen, or buried. The Shugendō leaders were forced to remove the religious potpourri of Shugendō. Only the elements of Shinto, the then-national religion, were allowed to remain on their three holy mountains. The details of the Dewa-Sanzan School of Shugendō are documented in a booklet published by the Ideha Shrine: Dewa Sanzan Shi published by the Office of Dewa Shanzan Shrine (2011), Yamagata, Japan. There is also a book Shugendō by Hitoshi Miyake, a prominent Shugendō expert in Japan, which was originally published in Japanese but was later translated into English and published by The University of Michigan in

24 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

Nature and Natural ElementsAs with many other ancient religions in the world, Shugendō utilizes elements in nature, particularly water and fire, in its ritual practices.

One of the key mountain austerities is a water-purification ritual (misogi) performed at a waterfall (Figure 8). Our first ceremony of water purification took place under two tall waterfalls, one for the male participants and the other for the females. Each of the two leaders presided over the ritual for each group. The water was ice-cold, very likely below 15˚C because it was painful to be in it. The low temperature initially hurt my legs so badly that I could feel dull pain spreading through my feet, knees, and hips.

The men’s waterfall was taller and more powerful. Everyone went through this ritual without complaining. The man in the photo has participated in this program more than ten times (Figure 9). He is making one of the symbolic signs of esoteric Buddhism called in by holding his index fingers at chest level. This particular hand gesture, usually held at chest level with both index fingers raised was used by several other male participants. A more common gesture, particularly among the female participants, is to hold your palms together. This woman (Figure 10), who is also a seasoned Shugendō practitioner and frequent participant in this program, demonstrates her calm demeanor as she is standing in prayer posture against the frigid water. Before the ritual, Mr. Ota, the chief yamabushi leader, warned us that the water pressure would be strong enough to damage our neck or back and that in the past there were even those who had suffered whiplash. He told us to stay focused and not to fool around. That serious warning worried me at first. While we were lining up for our turn, he told us to keep chanting. I loudly repeated the mantra of “Ōharae no ōkami” while shaking my crossed, clenched fists with all my might. I kept telling myself to concentrate on the mantra, “Ōharae no ōkami.” Then, I began to sense energy bubbling from the center of my body. Strangely, I felt confident and forgot about the acute pain. I never knew that focused chant-ing could be so helpful. When it was my turn, I was calm enough to proceed even though I was one of several first-time participants in this group. In the third photo (Figure 11), I am shouting “yay” with a symbolic hand gesture of “cutting the air” before going under the waterfall. We were instructed to do that to get fired up.

The power of the water was so great that at first it was hard to keep standing without being pushed down. My body leaned forward with the strong force of water so Mr. Ota had to hold my shoulders tight to stabilize

2001. A well-made DVD titled Shugendō Now also features this religion practiced in another school of Shugendō in Wakayama, Japan (McGuire 2011).

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 25

my swaying body (Figure 12). I could not keep my eyes open because of the heavy splash from the waterfall. The water pressure was so strong that my back and shoulders hurt at first. Although standing under the waterfall was similar to fighting with water from a power hose, with the leader’s grip on my shoulders, I stood there calmly, chanting the mantra. I was spiritually in sync with the waterfall. The main purpose of undergoing the spiritual dousing is to purify our five senses, to “wash away” our sins from the past, and to move forward. The pure water removes any impurities and prepares us for the new, better life into which we are to be reborn. Immediately after the ritual, I felt renewed energy within me. By the time we were leaving the waterfall site, my body was burning hot. It was a strange sensation. I was tired but utterly refreshed.

Right after the first water purification ritual, we entered an area so sacred that no photography was permitted. The holy spot enshrines the Mother Rock of Mount Yudono. It is a huge boulder, red with iron, and with warm onsen (hot spring) water running over it. We walked around the Rock in single file, bowing to edifices dedicated to holy spirits. The warm water felt very good on my feet, and I thanked the Rock for that blessing. That night we soaked our sore shoulders and beaten legs in a hot bath made of the same iron-filled onsen water.

Another signifier of this ancient mystic religion is fire. Like water, fire is an agent of cleansing in Shugendō. As a long-time aid to humans since pre-historical times, this natural element has played an important spiritual role in many religions and cults in the world. Fire keeps us warm and enables us to consume plenty of nutrients from cooked food, but it also burns us and destroys our belongings and habitats. Its multifaceted effect is so powerful that the mythology associated with fire abounds in many cultures. In Shugendō, it is believed that by connecting with the holy fire, we get the fire to “burn away” our extreme attachments that make us suffer in this world. For the ceremony of goma-daki, or a holy fire ritual, we were summoned to the main assembly hall with a tatami (straw-mat) floor covering (Figure 13). It was warm and dark inside the hall. I was becoming drowsy, but the pain from seiza—sitting with legs folded tight—kept me awake. In Japanese culture, sitting in seiza also signifies that the upcoming ceremony is very formal.

Soon, the temperature became uncomfortably hot with a bonfire prepared at the altar as the holy fire (Figure 14). Wearing that thick Shugendō garment, I sweated throughout the ceremony. The whole event was a ritualized sequence of mysterious procedures performed by two head priests and our program leaders. We chanted mantras. The head priest read a prayer in a high-pitched

26 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

Shinto style, and our program’s assistant leader tossed some consecrated prayer sticks (gomagi) into the fire. As flames grew high and sparks flew up, all of us offered more mantras. Perhaps because the heat was unbearable and the air stifling due to the carbon emitted from the burned sticks and all the people breathing in the closed room, I had trouble feeling connected with the holy fire. The priest started citing some of the participants’ names and their wishes in a Shinto prayer style. Whenever the prayer sticks touched the fire, sparks danced through the darkness. It is said that the central deity of this ritual, Fudō-Myō-ō, will burn away negative influences and bring happiness and success back to their lives.

Sound and Movement As a SignifierI believe that both sound and body movement can serve as a signifier, especially in a highly structured religious practice. Mr. Ota led our way through the wilderness by walking at the front of the line and carrying a large conch shell (horagai). A very important instrument for Shugendō, the conch is blown in a certain melodic pattern like a trumpet to signal the group’s approach to a holy site. When this real Shugendō practitioner blew the conch, its deep, echoing sound pierced the silence of the mountain forest, as if it were communicating with whatever forces exist in nature.

The sonorant signifiers of Shugendō also include prayer to kami, deities in nature recited in the medieval language of Shinto. For instance, after we reached our first water purification site, we performed a soul-revitalizing cer-emony called tama-furi (lit., soul-shaking)—an activity that combines prayer and exercise. The purpose of the ceremony was to energize our spirit that had somewhat lost its vigor. We took off our robes and changed into water ritual attire—for women, a swimsuit consisting of a thigh-length white cotton coat and a pair of white cotton shorts; for men, only a loincloth (Figure 15). Then, led by Mr. Ota, we all sang the prayer songs in the medieval Shinto language. Because there were quite a number of inexperienced participants in this group, we seldom harmonized in the incantation we recited. After the exercise, we faced a white broom-shaped object as a yorishiro (an object symbolically rep-resenting kami’s presence), bowed, and clapped our hands together (Figure 16). According to the program leaders, the collective prayer nourishes kami, and in return we become in sync with the spiritual power of the mountain. On the third day, before heading for the second water ritual, we put on the same white kimono top and hakama pants and lined up in front of the inn to pray to kami for our safety. We sang another Shinto-style prayer song.

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 27

The lack of sound may also be a signifier. Mr. Ota continually reminded us that this was “a spiritual training” and that we should refrain from making noise, including talking among ourselves.6 Imposed silence seemed to warn us about the physical demand of the training that entailed climbing up through the marsh and hours of hiking up and down on sharp slopes (Figure 17). With only a few hours of sleep, brief rests, and no caffeine, our own attention was all that kept each of us alert over slippery rocks and across treacherous creeks on the path to the waterfalls. Although many participants came prepared with wooden staffs and durable white boots with rubber soles that prevent slipping and are better suited for this type of mountain trekking, the chance of an individual’s injury is high in the wilderness when we are distracted by lively chatting. Indeed, initially I was oblivious to the upcoming physical challenge of walking for long stretches through the forest moving from one mountain to another most of the time. None of us anticipated the serious fall of a fellow participant on the second day. Although the person’s injuries looked extensive at first, miraculously, the accident only cost him a few stitches on his head and some broken bones.

Mountain As a SignifierAs mentioned earlier, Shugendō’s teachings originate in Japan’s ancient practice of mountain worship. Thus, our training sites were at Mount Haguro (419m), Mount Gassan (1984m), and Mount Yudono (1504m), collectively called the Dewa-Sanzan (three mountains of the Dewa region). Because Mount Haguro houses all the key religious structures including the headquarters and the main shrine of this Shugendō school, our training started with that mountain. On the second day, we woke before sunrise, packed our belongings, and started the descent to the next mountain, Mount Gassan. Although that mountain still had some snow in the summer, the long-sleeved kimono garments and the warmth from constant motion prevented us from freezing (Figure 18). Yamagata is a place of mountain veneration. Mount Gassan is the tallest holy mountain among the Dewa-Sanzan and is considered the mountain of spirits. The locals, believing that the spirits of the dead travel to Mount Gassan, call it “Mountain of the Dead.” One participant from this area, an experienced mountain climber, said to me that it is the only mountain he avoids climbing because “it’s too spooky to be in this mountain alone.”

6 Besides restricting private talk, cell phone and camera use were also prohibited during the training because, in keeping with the mindset we were supposed to assume, we had to leave our “materialistic” lives behind. However, because of my book project, the program leaders showed some leniency, allowing me to take photographs conspicuously.

28 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

Among the mountains of Yamagata considered sacred, Mount Yudono is viewed as our primordial “mother.” Before breakfast on our last day, we put on our white kimono tops and hakama pants, lined up in front of the inn to pray to kami for our safety, and proceeded to the second water-purification ritual at a different waterfall site in Mount Yudono (Figure 19). As shown throughout this article, nature carries a spiritual significance in Shugendō. Although the program gives secular participants a good workout, many gained something more than physical benefits, perhaps a transcendent experience privileged to those spiritually committed. As one experienced practitioner asserted, “If this is not for you, there is no reason to join us. You can go trekking in the mountains on your own.”

After this second waterfall ritual, we climbed a narrow, rusty metal ladder set on the slope of the mountain (Figure 20) to visit a cave so sacred that no photographs were permitted. The photographer, Mr. Wada, had been asked not to follow us to the cave. To Shugendō practitioners, the mountain is the mother of humanity, and this cave, therefore, is the womb of the kami resid-ing over Mount Yudono, Dainichi Nyorai or the Sun Goddess. Thus, going into this cave signifies the act of entering the mother’s womb, symbolizing the process of our spiritual rebirth. The metaphor here is that after having your impurities removed in the water, you are ready to re-enter the mother’s womb and be reborn. It was pitch black in the cave, and we had to walk with a flashlight turned on. There was only enough space for a few of us to walk inside. We bowed at the end of the cave and came out to let others move in. In exiting the cave, we were leaving our old selves in there and assuming a new life. This is the very reason the program was created for lay people. Mr. Ueno emphasized that the program was designed to help the average person experience a metaphorical rebirth through mountain austerities and become an individual who would benefit humanity. My concluding thesis from this program is that life and death are fundamentally compatible. “Rebirth” is just a metaphor, and perhaps we will become a new person only if we make a conscious effort afterward.

We walked back to the inn for breakfast at around 9:00 a.m. Compared to the rigors of the real Shugendō that followers impose upon themselves, our experiences in this program for the secular were mere baby steps and prob-ably no challenge to the frequent repeaters of the program I featured with some photos. Personally, however, I was so tired that all I could do was put one foot in front of the other, mechanically, to walk back to the inn. During the closing ceremony, I did not feel well at all. As I walked to the altar in the main hall to receive my certificate of completion, I desperately wanted to lie

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 29

down somewhere. A fellow participant looked at me with concern. After the closing ceremony, she suggested that I go talk to the chief-leader about my growing lethargy and dizziness. I was hesitant at first, but after she told me about another participant’s illness after the second water ritual and advised that “it would be better to have the problem taken care of now rather than when you are alone where nobody else would help you”, I changed my mind. By “help” she meant healing by a shaman. So, one of the elderly participants was asked to perform a short session of exorcism on me. I was skeptical, but I reasoned with myself that it would be better to remove any obstacles that might later interfere with my travel in Japan. Sure enough, I completed the rest of my trip in Japan without becoming sick or injured. How to interpret this experience is anyone’s conjecture. The elderly shaman explained that negative torrents gushed inside me through an open valve because, think-ing this was almost the end of the program, I had let down my guard. One thing she was right about is that I was indeed thinking we were almost done that morning.

As mentioned earlier, I took part in three spiritual practices in different parts of Japan as part of my book project. I learned the lessons that only direct experience could teach. Most of the religious teachings in Japan warn against going to the extreme. As Mr. Ueno stated, in life the best way is to walk the middle path. In Mr. Ueno’s conceptualization of kami in Shinto, nature has two faces: It can heal and nurture us, but it can also kill us. Polluting nature now feels like desecrating it. I also learned to be more grateful for what I have. The meaning of ayani, one of the key words of Shugendō prayers, is an overwhelming sense of gratitude. He hoped that now we participants would remind ourselves of ayani often, albeit back in the world of desires and illusions.

The lay people I met in this program were as interesting as the teachings and symbolism of Shugendō. I had the privilege of hearing about their struggle and quest and how the spiritual experience had transformed them. Some participants connect with the realm of kami and buddhas, seem to receive strength from them, and come back to the program over and over. A fellow participant, a forty-six-year-old vocational school teacher from Tokyo, joined this program for the first time, but she had already had ascetic training experi-ence in several other programs. I sensed a radiating self-confidence in her by simply observing her steady footsteps and straight posture throughout the program. Beneath her youthful appearance and nonchalant demeanor, she hid years of austere experience. She recently told me that she had success-fully completed a series of training sessions and was officially ordained to be

30 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

a practitioner. In the world of Shugendō, devotion and physical strength are requirements. She appeared to possess both.

From this Shugendō program and the other programs and religious sites I visited, I learned that Japan still has a deep, spiritual connection with nature. I am now aware that we humans are small compared to the power of nature. Unlike my mother’s generation, in which schoolchildren were made to recite all of the emperors’ names and sing the national anthem every morning, my generation is probably what Inoue (2011) called a product of the post-war Japan that U.S. General Douglas MacArthur helped build. Many of the Japanese are acutely aware that “State Shinto” misguided its citizens with ultra-nationalism during WWII. Although Shinto and Buddhism are usu-ally cited as the major religions of Japan, fundamentally Japan is considered a secular society. Yet, secularism does not mean atheism. It only means “not connected with a particular religion”. Even though Japan is secular as a nation, not all citizens of the nation deny the existence of God or any form of a higher being. To this day, Shinto and Buddhist rituals are performed year round. And as featured in this article, I have met seekers of spirituality throughout my fieldwork, and I believe that they are well aware of the presence of Japan’s spiritual roots.

I have another reason to believe that contemporary Japanese people are “the secular seekers of spirituality”. Many religious signifiers, such as the ones in these twenty photos, are also embedded in the art works of Japanese popu-lar culture, especially in films. I can easily name at least ten award-winning block-buster films (including anime) that appear to contain symbolism from Japanese spiritual roots: (1) Dororo (Buddhism), (2) Spirited Away (Shinto, Animism, and folk religions), (3) Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (folk reli-gions), (4) Princess Mononoke (Shinto, Animism, and folk religions), (5) Mushi-shi (Animism and Buddhism), (6) Onmyoji (Taoism), (7) Onmyoji II (Shinto and Taoism), (8) Departure (Buddhism and Shinto), (9) Ash Feather Federation (Christianity, Judaism, and folk religions), (10) Twilight Samurai (Confucianism and Buddhism). For example, Departures, a 2008 Japanese film about an unemployed musician who takes a job as an undertaker, con-tains many religious signs, both textual and visual, drawn from Buddhism such as the death robe discussed in this article. Another example is Mushi-shi, an anime taken from a very popular comic book series created by Yuki Urushibara. Her stories allude to Japanese legends and spiritual concepts related to Animism, particularly the act of nature-worship, still observed in contemporary Japan. Using the theoretical approach of semiotics, I was able to sharpen my analytical insights and decipher the religious symbolism,

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 31

not just in my mountain ascetic practices but also in these recently released Japanese films. Now, I will argue below how the analytical skills developed by adopting semiotics can also benefit college students who major in foreign language studies.

Semiotics As an Important Part of Cultural Studies

Role of Semiotics in Higher EducationUsing a Japanese religion sourced in my fieldwork as a case study, I demon-strated how semiotics can be useful in analyzing the visual data (the photo-graphed images) that I gathered as a participant-observer in this religious program. Why is it worth promoting semiotics as an analytical standpoint alternative to other approaches? As discussed earlier, my rationale for using semiotics is that only through its theoretical lens was I able to directly ana-lyze the signifiers and signifieds of Shugendō that carry religious significance which were visually represented in the photographed images. I also adopted this theoretical approach because, as an applied linguist, it makes academic sense to see religious activities as a form of communication (with deities and perhaps our inner selves) through certain gestures and prayer words.

For college students who study a foreign language, it goes without saying that learning the culture of the target language is an indispensable component of language acquisition (e.g., Ellis 1994; Saville-Troike 2012). Semiotics will serve as an analytical approach to studying culture and developing a skill to decode the culturally embedded meanings. In addition, semiotics has recently been incorporated into second language acquisition research (see Augustyn 2012 and Kramsch 2009 for a detailed discussion on this topic). As college students develop a communicative competence in another language, they should be encouraged to adopt the view that a culture is a symbolic system and that learning another culture means adopting a new system of culturally coded signs.

Educational Value of Visual LiteracySemiotics can also serve as an intellectual tool to teach visual literacy. Visual literacy is a skill set, but it also refers to a newly emerging field of pedagogy (e.g., Burmark 2008; Muffoletto 1994; Schwarz 2005). More and more, edu-cators in humanities have acknowledged the importance of integrating this subject into college-level curriculum and into regular high-school education. Among these visual literacy advocates, Muffoletto (1994) illustrates how se-miotics helps us interpret a particular message encoded in the photographic image, a practice that will eventually lead to developing visual literacy. What

32 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

is visual literacy? It refers to our ability to “read” (= comprehend) and “write” (= produce) visually oriented materials, such as advertisements, films, and comic books. To “read” does not simply mean to absorb the information as a consumer of such material; more importantly, it means to critically think and analyze material by asking: Who is the target audience of this material? Does the image creator have any agenda at work? Why did the creator choose particular colors, shapes and framing? Why promote the teaching of visual literacy? North American college students can benefit from developing two critical skills for their future career opportunities: (1) the ability to discern intended messages and hidden agendas in the products of media and (2) the ability to understand the cultural significance in products of foreign origin. Therefore, I strongly argue that living in today’s global age and visual cul-ture, college students—particularly those who study foreign languages and cultures—will benefit greatly from learning about semiotics and developing visual literacy for their future career opportunities.

AcknowledgementsI would like to express my special thanks to those who helped me with this project. First and foremost, my gratitude goes to The Hawai’i Council for the Humanities for funding my research in Japan. I also thank Dr. Jim Kelly, a photographer and retired professor, for providing me with the basic pho-tography training prior to undertaking this fieldwork. I am also grateful to Mrs. Susan Yugawa, a graphics specialist at our institution, and Mr. Tomas Gilmer, a photographer and videographer in Arizona, for their advice in camera and photo techniques, as well as Mr. Yoshio Wada, a photographer in Japan, for allowing me to use his pictures along with mine in this article. I would like to acknowledge the generous contribution of Dr. Larry Rogers, a Japanese studies and translation specialist, for providing his comments on my conference speech manuscript, an earlier version of this article. Last of all, I thank Mr. Shigeki Ueno, co-founder of this three-day mountain asceticism program, for providing me with vital information about the history of the program and Shugendō spirituality.

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 33

Figures 1–20 (Shugendo Photos)

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 4

Figure 6Figure 5

Figure 3

34 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 10

Figure 12Figure 11

Figure 9

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 35

Figure 13 Figure 14

Figure 16

Figure 18Figure 17

Figure 15

36 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

References

AOKI, Jinzō.2011. Dewasanzan Shi [The Chronicle of Three Dewa Mountains] (Yamagata,

Japan: Dewsanzan Jinja [Dewasanzan Shrine]).

AUGUSTYN, Prisca.2012. “On Semiotics in Language Education”, Semiotica 192, 523–533.

BARTHES, Roland.1972. Mythologies (New York: Hill and Wang).1977. Image, Music, Text (New York: Hill and Wang).

BERGER, Arthur Asa.2008. Seeing is Believing (New York: McGraw-Hill).

BURMARK, Lynell.2008. “Visual Literacy: What You Get is What You See”, in Teaching Visual

Literacy: Using Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Anime, Cartoons, and More to Develop Comprehension and Thinking Skills, ed. N. Frey and D. Fisher (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin), 5–25 .

DANESI, Marcel.2002. Understanding Media Semiotics (New York: Oxford University Press).2007. The Quest for Meaning: A Guide to Semiotic Theory and Practice (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press).2008. Popular Culture: Introductory Perspective (New York: Rowman & Little-

field Publishers).

ELLIS, Rod.1994. The Study of Second Language Acquisition (New York: Oxford University

Press).

Figure 20Figure 19

Semiotics of Japan’s Mountain Ascetics Okuyama 37

HASTRUP, Kirsten.1993. “Anthropological Visions: Some Notes on Visual and Textual Authority”,

in Film as Ethnography, ed. P. I. Crawford and D. Turton (New York: Manchester University Press), 8–25.

HOLTOM, D. Clarence.1995. The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto (New York: Kegan

Paul International).

INOUE, Kyoko.2011. “Why Many Japanese Say They Have no Religion: Collective Spirituality,

Family and Law”, The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality 1.3, 17–26.

JEREMIAH, Ken.2010. Living Buddha: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan (North

Carolina: McFarland).

KATIC, Elvira.2012. “The Mirrored Madonna: Text and Symbol in Body Writing Artworks”,

in Semiotics: The Semiotics of Space: Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, 15–19 October 2010, ed. K. Haworth, J. Hogue, and L. G. Sbrocchi, 313–323.

KRAMSCH, Claire.2009. The Multilingual Subject: What Foreign Language Learners Say about

Their Experience and Why It Matters (New York: Oxford University).

McGUIRE, M. Patrick.2011. “Making a Space for Hope: Representing the Creative Reinvention of

Japanese Mountain Asceticism in the Documentary, Shugendō Now”, CrossCurrents 61.3, 298–307.

doi: 10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00185.x

METZ, Christian.1974. Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema (New York: Oxford University).

MIYAKE, Hitoshi.2001. Shugendō: Essays on the Structure of Japanese Folk Religion (Ann Arbor,

MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan).2006. Shugendō: Sono Rekishi to Shugyō [Shugendō: Its History and Training]

(Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha).

MONACO, James.2009. How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond (New York: Oxford

University Press).

38 TAJS 29.1– 4 (2013)

MUFFOLETTO, Robert.1994. “Representations: You, Me, and Them”, in Visual Literacy: A Spectrum of

Visual Learning, ed. D. M. Moore and F. M. Dwyer (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications), 295–310.

NAITO, Masatoshi.2007. Minzoku-gaku no Hakken II: Oni to Shugen no Fokuroa [Findings of Folk

Customs II: The Folklore of Demons and Mountain Ascetics] (Tokyo, Japan: Hosei University Press).

SAVILLE-TROIKE, Muriel.2012. Introducing Second Language Acquisition (New York: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press).

SCHNELL, Scott.2006. “Conducting Fieldwork on Japanese Religions”, in Nanzan Guide to

Japanese Religions, ed. P. L. Swanson and C. Chilson (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii).

SCHWARZ, Gretchen.2005. “Overview: What is Media Literacy, Who Cares, and Why?” in Media

Literacy: Transforming Curriculum and Teaching, ed. G. Schwarz and P. U. Brown (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing), 5–118.

WOLLEN, Peter.1998. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema (London, England: British Film Insti-

tute).

YELLE, A. Robert.2013. Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History (New York: Blooms-

bury Publishing).