Shugendo Sites

The sacred mountain sites of Shugendo, the Japanese ascetic mountain-worship tradition blending Buddhist, Shinto and folk elements, traditionally founded by the ascetic En no Gyoja. Kinpusen-ji on Mount Yoshino in Nara Prefecture is the tradition's head sanctuary, by tradition founded by En no Gyoja himself, while Dewa Sanzan, the Three Mountains of Dewa in Yamagata Prefecture, forms the tradition's major pilgrimage complex in northern Japan, standing apart from the Kii mountain range sites around Yoshino and Kumano.