This thesis examines mountain ascetic training practices in Japan known as Shugendô (The Way to Acquire Power) from the 1980s to the present. Focus is given to the dynamic interplay between two complementary movements: 1) the creative process whereby charismatic, media-savvy priests in the Kii Peninsula (south of Kyoto) have re-invented traditional practices and training spaces to attract and satisfy the needs of diverse urban lay practitioners, and 2) the myriad ways diverse urban ascetic householders integrate lessons learned from mountain austerities in their daily lives in Tokyo and Osaka. This thesis argues that the creation of condensed mountain entry rituals such as the overnight Lotus Ascent of Mount Ômine, a successful campaign to designate sacred training grounds in the Kii Peninsulaa UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape and creation of an “eco-pilgrimage” in Kumano are best understood as creative strategies by Shugendô priests to maintain financial solvency, relevancy and market share while providing direct access to the transcendent in a competitive and uncertain time.
 
Though Shugendô priests and UNESCO designation served as gateways into this research, the experiences of urban lay ascetics are emphasized throughout. Two questions 
animate the thesis: Why does rebirth during a grueling, twenty-six kilometer overnight mountain ascent imagined as ritual death and re-entry into the Tantric Womb become necessary?  How might urban ascetics' initial motivations and subsequent integration of mountain learning resonate with broader concerns about employment, environment, family, health and well-being, rising suicide rate, memory and commemoration during the recessionary and zero-growth period known as Japan's "Lost Decade(s)” (1990s - present)?  

Reflections upon the attempt to represent this place and these practices in an accessible documentary film will be one element of a self-reflexive, collaborative and participatory research methodology informed by participant-observer fieldwork, interviews, focus groups and historiographical examination of the relevant primary, secondary and theoretical works.