ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some methodological problems related to the analysis and interpretation of the ascetic and mystical experiences of the so-called Japanese folk tradition. It examines the case of the sokushinbutsu (also called miira), the ascetics who sought to achieve salvation and immortality through self-mummification. The method through which an ascetic could achieve self-mummification during his life is not yet clearly understood. The phenomenon of the miira is quite old and certainly not restricted to Japan. According to the tradition of the issegyonin of Dewasanzan, for example, the ascetic, after a period of wandering from sacred place to sacred place all over Japan, took refuge in the caves of the senninzawa, the ‘swamp of the hermits’ at the foot of Mount Yudono. The ascetics never theorized on the meaning of the long ordeal they were inflicting on themselves, but directly lived it till the end.
