[Buddha-l] Query--forest tradition monks in Japan today?

Stephen Hodge s.hodge at padmacholing.plus.com
Fri Nov 10 21:33:34 MST 2006


Kate Marshal wrote:

> I came across an entry that [snip] translates "yamabushi" as "those who 
> sleep
> in mountains".  Does anyone agree with this translation?

Dear Kate,
Some of my messages don't seem to be getting through -- though I believe I 
am not the only one with this problem recently.

Anyway, I sent a correction to my last message almost immediately 
afterwards, to the effect that the "bushi" comes from the verbal stem 
"fushi" of "fusu", which means "to lie down", "to prostrate" etc rather than 
"to quell", in which I was misled by its use in another compound.  So your 
source is quite reasonable in its translation.  Incidently, the range of 
mountains in NW Japan known as Dewa Sanzan is one of the most significant 
yamabushi locales -- Google might  turn up something about it, better the 
the few lines in Wikipedia.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge




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