Chanting down the mountain

This is a short video (sorry about the bad quality) I took during a climb of Ontake-san 御嶽山 on September 21st.  Ontake-san is one of the holiest mountains in Japan, having been opened for religious practice around the 16th century.

Even now worshipers from all over Japan come to climb the mountain and pray at its many shrines.  These practioners are part of the Shingon sect (真言宗) of Buddhism, which is associated mainly with Mt. Koya.

Shingon practicioners view Ontake-san as their spiritual mother, which they symbolize through the red cords they wear at their hips to represent an umbilical cord.

This group had come from a temple in Ibaraki prefecture.

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Contributor Bio: I am a doctoral student of environmental anthropology currently living and conducting research in a mountain village in Nagano. In my research I explore modernity as it is expressed in a rural mountain community. Specifically I look at national management structures, as well as social discourses, related to forests and probe the impacts these have on local human communities. I have lived and worked in Japan for 5 years. My interests also include Buddhism, literature, music, and mountaineering. Read more at my personal blog: In the Pines.
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