Practitioner’s Episode 6 - "What are the practices of Shugendo?" - With Rev. Shokai Koshikidake

Hosted by filmmaker Yujiro Seki, Carving the Divine TV Podcast is a series of Q&A sessions with Buddhist scholars and practitioners. These Q&A sessions explore the basic concepts of Buddhism and the history of Buddhism so that when listeners finally watch the documentary film "Carving the Divine - Buddhist Sculptors of Japan" they will get the maximum value of the documentary.

Since we had the last interview on Shugendo, we have received numerous requests for another episode of Shugendo.  People are especially interested in seeing actual practices of Shugendo and the deep teaching behind it.  So, we have decided to conduct another interview of Shugendo.  We will even go deeper this time! We have a rare opportunity to talk to a legendary Japanese Shugendo master Rev. Shokai Koshikidake.  We will have an incredible interview but this episode will be more than just an interview!  Rev. Koshikidake is generous enough to share the photos and videos of practices that go with the interview.  So I promise this will be one hell of an episode! You want to discover the secret of the wisdom tradition of  Japan?  You want to discover the secret of deep teaching of Shugendo? Yes, you are in the right place!  We will blow your mind so come and see! 

We will be asking important questions such as:

What is Shugendo? What are some of the practices of Shugendo? 

What is mountain practice?  In other words, what do you do in the mountains? 

What is the purpose of going to the mountain? 

What is the purpose of Shugendo? 

In Shugendo, what is Goma?  Is Shugen Goma different from Shingon/Tendai Goma? 

 How do Shugen practitioners use Butsuzo in their practice? 

Shokai Koshikidake was born in Hokkaido, Japan. He left his parents’ home for Yamagata to inherit his family temple when he was 10 years old. He learned the basic ritual of Shugendo from his grandparents, studied mountain training in Three Mountains of Dewa, and became an ordained Tendai priest. He opened the mountain training field at Mt. Koshikidake and revived the old ritual from hereditary documents. He accomplished all these reconstruction works while working for a TV station. Now he teaches Japanese and Western practitioners and develops training fields in the world.