Omine

Yamabushi climbed Omine since the 9th century. Their religious beliefs suggest that climbing uphill allows you to rise above your earthly problems and get closer to the spiritual world ^[4] . According to legend, it was in these places that the founder of the shugendo, En-no Gyoja called gongen Bodhisattva Dzao ^[5] ; he founded the Ominesan-ji monastery ^[6] .

As an object of special veneration for Shugendo followers and the location of the Ominesan-ji Temple, the mountain remains the only place in Japan that is closed to women for religious reasons, despite the enactment of a law passed in 1872 that repealed such bans. The ban is valid for all thirteen centuries, that the mountain is an object of worship; on all the gates leading to the mountain hang the corresponding announcements. At the same time, the monks themselves argue that the purpose of the ban is not to discriminate against women, but to preserve a centuries-old tradition ^[4] .

The Law of 1872, as part of the Meiji Restoration policy , prohibited all rituals in the mountains, and after its adoption, Yamabushi began to conduct their rituals secretly ^[6] . After the end of World War II, the monks returned to Omine openly and revived the monastery ^[5] .

Since 2004, a complex of religious sites in the Kiy mountains, including Mount Omine, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List ^[1] .

The height of Omine is 1719 meters ^[1] . The mountain is located in the south of Nara Prefecture and is part of the Kii massif located on the Kii Peninsula of Honshu Island ^[2] .

Ominesan-ji Temple is the main religious site of Mount Omine and one of the most important in Shugendo. Four gates located around the mountain (Awakening, Practice, Enlightenment and Nirvana) are designed to separate the world from the place of worship, where the rituals of death and rebirth are held ^[5] .