ABSTRACT
From the sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries, corresponding to the late medieval and early modern periods in Japanese history, the Ömiya and Murayama entrance gates to one of the main routes for climbing Mount Fuji were controlled and managed by an order of mountain ascetics known as the Murayama shugen. Entries on Fuji mine shugyo can be found in the Suruga no ki, the Suruga no kuni shin fudoki and the Suruga shiryo, all of which are local gazetteers compiled during the Tokugawa period. The practitioners' stay on the mountain lasted from the 22nd of the seventh month to the 2nd of the eighth month, but when descending the mountain on the 3rd of the eighth month they did not take the same route as that taken during their ascent and they made a round of villages in the districts of Sunto and Fuji in Suruga province, performing ascetic practices, ritual prayers and so on along the way.
