Paper short abstract:

The spectacular practice of being suspended over a cliff is one of the most evocative images of extreme ascetic ritual and danger, often associated with the figure of the yamabushi. Tracing the history of this ritual, this paper aims to open discussion on its role in the contemporary context.

Paper long abstract:

The practice of being suspended over a cliff, nishi no nozoki (Western Nozoki) is probably one of the best known and photographed yamabushi rituals. Associated with the idea of danger and extreme ascetic practices, which Shugendō often evokes, it has contributed to the formation of the aura of myth and charisma which yamabushi present to the public and to some extent to academic circles as well. The notoriety of nishi no nozoki is not just a recent phenomenon caused by the post 1970s resurgence of interest in Shugendō, or by the inclusion of the Kumano kodō in the Unesco world heritage list, with the consequent flourishing of more or less spiritual trekking tours and one-day yamabushi experiences.

In spite of its supposed secrecy, accounts of this practice had appeared already at the end of the sixteenth century in José de Acosta's Historia natural y moral de las Indias and in Luis de Guzmán's Historia de las misiones, both based on a letter of the Jesuit Luís Fróis. At the beginning of the last century, the historian of religion Raffaele Pettazzoni included the practice of being hung over a cliff in his monumental work on the confessions of sins.

The contemporary nishi no nozoki is heir to the practice called "weighing karma" (gōbyō), a ritual belonging to the ten practices partly associated with the "ascent of the ten realms" (jikkai shugyō), a cycle of rituals fundamental to medieval yamabushi training.

What was the cultural and visual context of the creation of this ritual and what was its role, and that of the ten practices and of the ascent of ten realms, in the Muromachi process of constructing Shugendo doctrinal discourse?

To what extent we can see contemporary practices as a continuity of medieval ones? Or, in a completely changed cultural and social context, is it more appropriate to consider them to be phenomena of reinterpretation and reinvention?