Japan is not a backdrop for this Dojo. It is the soil from which everything grew. Mark spent three years living and researching there in the 1990s, and has returned many times since. The relationship is not academic — it is lived.
The 88-Temple pilgrimage on foot
Mark walked the Shikoku 88-Temple pilgrimage — the route around the island of Shikoku that follows in the footsteps of Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi), founder of Shingon Buddhism. The pilgrimage is over 1,200 kilometers. Walking it changes you. Mark describes deep spiritual experiences along this route — the kind that don't fit neatly into Western categories.
Sacred mountains and Tengu
Tengu are the bird-like warrior-spirits of Japan's mountains — masters of the sword, teachers of secret arts, half-divine and half-wild. Kurama, Atago, Takao — each has its Tengu legends, and each is a site where Shugendo practitioners still go for vision and power. Mark has visited these sites many times.
Where the temples meet the warrior
Shingon temples were never separate from the warrior tradition. Many martial arts schools historically had close ties to Shingon mountains. Kuji Kiri itself moved between mountain ascetic and warrior — they were not two worlds but one.
The pilgrimage continues
Mark continues to travel to Japan with students for sacred-site pilgrimages — to Tengu sites, to Shingon mountains, to the Shikoku route. The training is not separate from the land. The land carries the teaching.