The Life of a Shugendo Monk — An Interview With Taichi Tani

Taichi Tani is a monk in a village in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku Island. Although Shikoku is famous for its pilgrimage and numerous Shingon Buddhism temples, Mr. Tani’s temple is outside the pilgrimage route and from another tradition: Shugendo. Shugendo is a Japanese religion mixing Buddhism, Shinto, and Taoism. Ascetic training in the mountains is a central practice.

The young monk told me about the core values of Shugendo, how anyone can integrate some of its aspects in daily life, and his role as a “guide to Buddhism.”

“I Did Not Want to Become a Monk”

Why did you decide to become a monk?

To be honest, originally, I did not like this profession. My grandfather used to be the head priest of this temple before me. Since I was very little, I observed him, and even though I loved him as a person, I kept having doubts. I wondered, “Does he really know the meaning of the sutras?” Even as a child, I understood that he acted like a monk but did not really know the meaning of what he was saying.

In high school, I started reading books about Buddhism. I started thinking that the Buddha’s teachings were great, but what the Buddhist monks in Japan were doing did not match with it. That is why I did not want to become a monk.