DAVID BOILLEY OF ACRO: THE ZONE

Interview by Katsuyoshi Ueno

David Boilley is a nuclear physicist and the chairman of ACRO (a French NGO with a nuclear testing laboratory). I met with him during his stay in Japan to discuss the current situation of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and what Japan needs to do to protect its citizens both now and into the future.

The Japanese government is now trying to bring back people into the evacuation zone. Is this a sensible decision?

There are two reasons for the 30 kilometers evacuation zone. One is that there may …»

UNDER A HEAVY MANDALA: HIROSHI HOSHINO

The last of a three-part series on Yamagata Mountain Ascetics

Those figures retreating into the fogged mountains of Dewa-Sanzan are the Yamabushi. For over a thousand years these secretive, ritualistic, asectics have cultivated powers within sacred zones of the mountains; enduring harsh initiations to seek a perfect union with nature.

Looking up you’ll see the walls are lined with photographs of the remembered dead; old Yamabushi wearing elaborate costumes who look down upon you as you sit on the tatami floor. This is the main room of Hiroshi Hoshino’s Shukubo, a lodging created for monks. Today this Shukubo is one of about 30 around the Dewa-Sanzan mountains; hundreds of years ago there were ten times more. “Some of the old generation still come, but the younger generation don’t. Honestly we don’t know how to bridge that gap, maybe it’s just the way the generations flow, they can’t understand the Yamabushi way.” …»

ROOFTOPS AND A WOODEN WOMB: KAZUE MIYATA

The second of a three-part series on Yamagata Mountain Ascetics

Those figures retreating into the fogged mountains of Dewa-Sanzan are the Yamabushi. For over a thousand years these secretive, ritualistic, asectics have cultivated powers within sacred zones of the mountains; enduring harsh initiations to seek a perfect union with nature.

Wearing white funeral clothes, carrying a large hôragai (a conch shell trumpet) and a walking stick, Yamabushi enter the mountains to confront death. After nine days of wandering and enduring “The Autumn Peak,” they will be a step closer to merging with the essence of life, with “all things.” What exactly goes on during these mountain rituals has remained a secret for over a thousand years, but …»

MERGING WITH THE ENDLESS: KOKAI SHIMATSU

The first of a three-part series on Yamagata Mountain Ascetics

Those figures retreating into the fogged mountains of Dewa-Sanzan are the Yamabushi. For over a thousand years these secretive, ritualistic, asectics have cultivated powers within sacred zones of the mountains; enduring harsh initiations to seek a perfect union with nature.

Mountains have bewitched the human mind for centuries. They are the first towers, the first totems and the first monuments. Early humans bowed to them, out of fear and respect because mountains were the clearest embodiment of natures inexorable vitality. In Japan, mountain worship was practiced as early as the 7th Century, and also practiced by the Hijiri monks of the 9th Century. This is one of the main sources where Shugendo—a syncretic belief system founded by the monk En-No-Gyo-ja—draws its knowledge from. Shugendo is a way, not a faith; it combines Shinto, Buddhism and Animist beliefs with arcane magic and harsh mountain rituals.

At one time …»