Reflections on the Way
Inner Dharma is a writing project maintained by Mark Raugas. I want to thank all those who provided feedback and encouragement over the last twenty years.
涼しさやほの三日月の羽黒山 suzushisa ya / hono mikazuki no / Haguro-yama “Such coolness — a faint crescent moon over Mount Haguro.”
— Bashō, Oku no Hosomichi, 1689
This project started because of my interest in Shugendō (修験道; the way of cultivation and verification), a blend of Buddhism, Daoism and mountain asceticism practiced in Japan. Visiting sacred places has been an important component of my training over the years, and it was at Dewa that the two interests met.
Since that time I have practiced Daoist martial arts and Japanese sword methods influenced by Mikkyō and Shugendō – this site also hosts some of my research and commentary on those topics.
July 2026: A brief discussion of Yogācāra doctrine, Trikāya philosophy and how they may be expressed in the A-Un kokyū of certain lines of Shinkage-ryū.
July 2026: Early Shinkage-ryū densho show a change in theme where lines under Ogasawara's transmission of the art begin referring to enpi with the character for circle and including a concept of ensō. This might at first glance be a reference to the Zen circle. Later in some lines it becomes just that. But during the 17th century, it is explicitly a reference to the *endonkai* precepts of Tendai.
July 2026: Some information on Edo period martial traditions inspired by the religious complex on Mt. Kurama, where Yoshitsune is supposed to have learned from Tengu from the Gekiken Sōdan.
July 2026: Notes on the 1982 article by Kuroki Toshih
July 2026: Comparing Shugendō register Fudō/Monju wisdom-blade against Yagyū katsuninken — with godai-centered iconography as an attesting example.
July 2026: A companion to 'A-Un, Gogyō, Godai and Beyond.' A five-phase seasonal-apportionment chart in a Shugendō ritual manual, surfaced while searching the esoteric stratum behind Yagyū Jūbei's Tsuki no Shō, and what it shows about three easily-conflated cosmologies: five phases (gogyō), the great elements (godai/shidai), and directional-body (shishin/gotai) schemes.
June 2026: A short description of Kukishin-ryū history and its provenance, which is described as relating to Shugendō but is contested.
June 2026: Ming Chinese master of Taisha-ryū and Shugendō practitioner. Some contrasts between Hiko Shugendō and Dewa Shugendō and a digression to a famous school of sword smiths.
June 2026: The famous poem on the three mountain pilgrimage of Dewa Sanzan
June 2026: Dewa area bujutsu and the Shugendō connections of the original iai ryūha. Tengu-related origins as told in several martial traditions, contrasting them based on their period of development and social perspectives. How attitudes towards China affected origin tales over time.
June 2026: One thread that affects multiple articles here, whether on kobudō or Japanese religion, is the early Edo importance of Ming Dynasty culture in Japan as being desirable as an influence and the mid-to-late Edo scorn for Qing Dynasty China. This is only amplified in Meiji and beyond.
May 2026: Some details on the Shugendō of Udo in Kyushu and how it might relate to the founding of Aisu Kage-ryū and the later influence of Shugendō on Shinkage-ryū.
May 2026: Last in a series. We examine a seal of transmission of self-protective methods dated 1675 and compare it against a different line of transmission from 1812.
May 2026: A brief discussion of the seasonal mappings of kata in Jikishinkage-ryū kenjutsu and how those relate to Daoist complementarity, five phase theory, and partially to Mikkyō concepts.
May 2026: Tracing the threads from the legendary Kyō Hachi Ryū and Kiichi Hōgen at Kurama, through the tengu pantheon of Mt. Atago, Kōyasan and Kotohira, to the eight cipher-names Sekishūsai used to hide the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Tengushō kata in his picture catalog.
April 2025: Last year I began additional training in the union of Yoga and Buddhism offered through Tibet House. As part of this training, an essay comparing the Astanga (8-limbs) of Patanjali with the Buddhist Noble Eightfold path.
July 2017: Some notes on Japanese mountain religion from the Tōhoku region of Japan and its importance to practitioners of arts derived from the teachings of Takeda Sōkaku.
Much more information is now available about practices like Shugendō. I recommend those interested to read Ishizuchi-san on Western Mikkyō (opens in a new tab) – those interested in practice in the West would do well to visit karunamitra.org (opens in a new tab) for an attempt to correct misconceptions about the inherited tradition.
