ABSTRACT
We now turn to the active partner of the two shamanic practitioners in Japan, the ascetic. He first appears on the scene in the late Nara or early Heian period, that is to say in the late eighth or early ninth century, known variously as an ubasoku, a hijiri or a shamon. All these names carry a Buddhist connotation. They indicate a man who has taken Buddhist vows, but chooses to retire to the fastnesses of certain mountains rather than to reside in any recognised temple or monastery. There he undertakes a regime of the austerities we outlined in an earlier chapter. Abstaining from cereals, salt and of course meat, he devotes himself under the guidance of a guardian divinity to the recitation of a particular holy text. If a waterfall happens to be nearby he stands beneath it. He also makes, in either visionary or symbolic form, a journey to the other world. These experiences act as an initiation. They endow him with the supernatural and holy power by which he can vanquish malignant spiritual beings and transform them into powers for good.1
