The Formation and its Meaning of the 75-sacred-place View in the Omine Sacred Mountain Area

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  • 山岳聖域大峰における75霊地観の成立とその意義
  • サンガク セイイキ オオミネ ニ オケル 75 レイチカン ノ セイリツ ト

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In Japan mountains have been sacred areas since ancient times. They have been not only objects of worship, but also fields of ascetic mountaineering by shugenja, ascetics of the shugendo sect. Research, however, on these“sacred mountain areas”including geographical research has hardly been conducted.<br>The author believes that we can study them from three viewpoints: landscape, behavior and recognition. This article focuses on imagery of these areas recognized by shugenja, and investigates their formation with relation to landscape, mountaineering behavior and previous imagery.<br>The field of the case study is the Omine Mountains that reach from Nara to Wakayama prefecture. They are representative of sacred mountain areas in Japan, and are believed to have had 75 sacred places called“nabiki”at one time. We call this recognition“the 75-sacred-place view”, and attempt to elucidate the time and details of its formation. The principal materials analysed are two lists of 75 sacred places' names.<br>The findings obtained are as follows:<br>1. The older type of list came into being at the beginning of the 19th century, and was revised into the newer one at the end of it.<br>2. The number 75 comes from the 75-ri view (1 ri is equivalent to about 4km) toward Omine.<br>3. The older list includes not only contemporary sites of small shrines dedicated to kongo-doji (small good in the shugendo, sect) and ritual spots, but also quite a few traditional place names, which are quoted from the previous list of 42 shuku (literally ascetic huts, as it were, sacred places) and the medieval list of holy sites.<br>4. The newer list is closer to the actual ritual spots, compared with the older one.<br>5. It can be said that the lists show an ideal imagery of ritual spots.<br>The 75-sacred-place view formed as mentioned above, however, hasn't had much influence on landscape and mountaineering behavior, because not all 75 locations have been definite, nor have ritual spots been thoroughly regulated by the list at present. The reason is supposedly that essentially for ascetic mountaineering, individual spots and their number are less important than the sacred mountain area as a whole. It may also have its roots in the fact that ritual spots are almost so natural that passersby have difficulty in recognizing their importance, in contrast to the Japanese pilgrimage to 88 or 33 holy places.<br>It seems that the 75-sacred-place view has had more significance for the development of recognition of Omine by secular people as well as shugenja.

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