There Is Some Connection Between Mt.Togakushi In Nagano Prefecture And Mt.Takao In West Tokyo

In my previous post on August 22nd, I wrote about a long established shrine located on the foot of Mt. Togakushi in Nagano Prefecture. It seems the mountain and the old shrine has nothing to do with Tokyo area, but actually there is a certain relation between the area and Yakuou-in Temple on Mt.Takao in Hachioji City, Tokyo.

Yakuou-in Temple is a Buddhist Temple belonging to one of the major Japanese Buddhist sects, but actually the temple is taking over a special style of practices called "Shugendo", which is a mixture of Buddhism and Japanese old nature worship "Shinto". Mixing two different religions might sound like a heretical style, yet it actually had been a very common style in Japan until the first Japanese modern government defined Buddhism and Shinto are completely different religions. 

Originally, traditional Japanese Shinto is a nature worship, so basically the concept tells everything in the world can be gods therefore people thought other religions were not exceptions. In fact still old Buddhist temples often keep shrines on the ground and most Japanese people don't feel strange at all when the saw temples and shrines on the same ground even now.

Going back to the topic of Yakuou-in Temple on Mt.Takao, they practice such a special style Buddhism mixing with nature worship. Their style is particularly called "Sugendo" and the monks are required to train themselves in nature and wear a special outfit for "Shugendo" that is different from usual Buddhist monks as shown in the upper photo.  What's more, their main building worships a special god related to Buddhism called "Iizuna-Gongen" which has a mysterious figure as shown in the lower center photo.

It is said that the Buddhist god, "Iizuna-Gongen", was originally a local mountain god for Mt. Iizuna and Mt. Iizuna is located on next to Mt. Togakushi which I introduced in my previous post. 

Actually the area including Mt. Togakushi and Mt. Iizuna had been famous for mountains worship and "Shugendo" since ancient times. Togakushi shrine also had worshiped some Buddhism gods and Buddha statue until the first Japanese modern government made shrines and temples separate Shinto and Buddhism as different religions. 

Thus, Togakushi Shrine on Mt.Togakushi and Yakuo-in Temple on Mt. Takao have an aspect of relative each other although they are a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple now. If you have a chance to visit Yakuo-in Temple on Mt. Takao in Tokyo, you see Torii gates which are a particular gate style for Japanese Shinto and many small shrines on the temple ground. One of the shrines there even worships a historical person who established "Shugendo" at Mt. Togakushi and Mt. Iizuna as shown in the lower right hand side photo.