Mountain Mandalas Shugendo in Kyushu [Paperback]

InMountain MandalasAllan G. Grapard provides a thought-provoking history of one aspect of the Japanese Shugendo tradition in Kyushu, by focusing on three cultic systems: Mount Hiko, Usa-Hachiman, and the Kunisaki Peninsula. Grapard draws from a rich range of theorists from the disciplines of geography, history, anthropology, sociology, and humanistic geography and situates the historical terrain of his research within a much larger context.

This book includes detailed analyses of the geography of sacred sites, translations from many original texts, and discussions on rituals and social practices. Grapard studies Mount Hiko and the Kunisaki Peninsula, which was very influential in Japanese cultural and religious history throughout the ages. We are introduced to important information on archaic social structures and their religious traditions; the development of the cult to the deity Hachiman; a history of the interactions between Buddhism and local cults in Japan; a history of the Shugendo tradition of mountain religious ascetics, and much more.

Mountain Mandalassheds light on important aspects of Japan's religion and culture, and will be of interest to all scholars of Shinto and Japanese religion. Extensive translations of source material can be found on the book's webpage.

Illustrations
Preface
Organization of the Book
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translation and Text

1. Shugendo and the Production of Social Space
Kyushu Island: an ignored world
The Hachiman cult's nebulous origins
Usa: from prehistoric village to cultic city
Oracular pronouncements as divine directives
The early Heian period: Iwashimizu Hachiman
The Kunisaki Peninsula's links to Usa
Mount Hiko

2. Geotyped and Chronotyped Social Spaces
Hachiman's traveling icons
Mount Hiko: of swords, meteors, dragons, and goshawks
Waiting for dawn on Mount Hiko: the geotype and chronotype of heterotopia
Mount Hiko's Sacred PelS*