Shugendo

Mount Yudono

Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

At the culmination of the Dewa Sanzan pilgrimage, where seekers symbolically die and are reborn across three sacred mountains, Mount Yudono guards the final mystery. The shrine has no building because the sacred object needs no shelter: a massive rust-red rock from which hot spring water perpetually flows. What happens when barefoot pilgrims walk across this warm, wet stone is protected by a tradition of strict secrecy maintained for over a millennium: speak not, hear not.