The Fall Peak, Professional Culture, and Document Production in Early Modern Haguro Shugendo

Frank Clements is Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. This article investigates the significance of Fall Peak austerities in Haguro Shugendo to the professional culture of early modern Haguro shugenja with an emphasis on the centrality of document production. The family archives of the elite Sanada Shichirōzaemon household and those of the village shugenja they administered reveal that, while all Haguro shugenja relied on the Fall Peak to achieve membership in Haguro Shugendo, the experience and requirements of the Fall Peak varied greatly based on the status of the participant’s household. I argue that these stratified experiences were based in a professional culture of document production and preservation that helped to construct and maintain the hierarchies of Haguro’s community and organization. In light of the documentary activities of the Sanada and their village shugenja subordinates, the social and professional aspects of the early modern Fall Peak should be regarded as just as significant as its ritual and doctrinal elements.