Hiking among Shinto deities

This past Sunday, I found myself wheezing as I climbed the impossible stairs of Mount Takao, located in the city of Hachioji near downtown Tokyo. It had been raining the night before, and the smell of wet loam and bark hung heavy in the air. Once in a while, there was the scuffing of a shoe and the scuttling of dirt, and looking up the trail, I’d see someone picking themselves up and gingerly patting the mud off their jeans.

Mount Takao, like most other mountains in Japan, has mystical qualities. This one in particular is said to be linked with the tengu, a minor deity in Shinto religion. They are usually depicted as humans with avian characteristics, including two great wings and a beak, which has transformed over time into a nose of Pinnochian proportion. Though potentially belligerent and dangerous, tengu are also the protective spirits of mountains and forests.

I have always loved Japanese Shinto and mythology, which has been equated to a kind of animism. It makes everything sacred, from withered trees to laughing streams. Climbing, weaving, and slipping through the trails of Mount Takao, I thought of the numerous forest spirits said to reside within the foliage and of the tengu who stand watch over the green leaves and brown soil with a stern countenance and upraised arm. It’s exhilarating to regard oneself as so close to the divine.