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Podcast: New Books in Buddhist Studies
Episode: Caleb Swift Carter, "A Path Into the Mountains: ShugendÅ and Mount Togakushi" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)
Description: Often represented as a tradition of ancient origins, ShugendÅ has retained a quality of mystery and nostalgia in the public imagination and scholars as the âoriginalâ champions of mountain asceticism. In his monograph, A Path Into the Mountains: ShugendÅ and Mount Togakushi (U Hawaii Press, 2022), Caleb Carter challenges this conceptualization by examining historical documents of Mount Togakushi. By focusing on themes of narratives, institution, and ritual, Carter explores how the transmission of this complex religious system at Togakushi was not a natural phenomenon, but a conscious act by a practitioner from Mount Hiko. Using a variety of textual so...