Yamabushi

Yamabushi, literally one who prostrates on the mountain, are Shugendo's practitioners, also called shugenja. They undertake structured retreats into the sacred mountains, wearing a distinctive dress, the pom-pommed yuigesa harness, straw kyahan leggings, a small tokin cap and a metal shakujo staff, and carrying a horagai conch shell blown during ritual. Their practice blends esoteric Buddhist discipline learned within the Shingon and Tendai lineages with reverence for the mountains' own resident Shinto kami, and their training is judged by endurance of the terrain itself rather than by textual study alone.