Mokujiki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mokujiki (木食, 'eating of trees/wood') is a Japanese ascetic practice involving abstinence from cereals and cooked foods, replaced by consuming foods gathered from mountain forests.[1][2][3] Adherents often rely primarily on flour made from buckwheat or wild oats, supplementing their diet with pine bark, chestnuts, torreya nuts, grass roots, and other wild plants.[3][1] This mountain diet is considered to possess spiritual energy and purity, contrasting with typical worldly diets based on cereals.[1] Some practitioners observe it annually for brief periods on sacred mountains, while others commit for years or even vow to practice it for life.[1] Those who take the lifetime vow adopt mokujiki as part of their religious name.[1] The practice was a critical part of preparation for self-mummification.[3]
Mokujiki implies the active consumption of food from forests.[1] A related term, kokudachi (穀断ち), refers specifically to abstention from cereals.[1] A practitioner abstains from either five or ten specific cereals, with the exact list varying by tradition. Abstention from grains originated in China, where it was a common ascetic practice in the late second and first centuries BCE and is still practiced today as bigu (辟穀).[1]
Recorded instances of mokujiki in Japan date back to the ninth century, mentioned in the Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku.[1] Mokujiki has been practiced in various forms throughout Japanese history.[1] It peaked during the Edo period (c. 1500s to late 1800s), though it continues to be practiced today.[1] The northeastern region of Japan was a historical heartland of the practice.[1]
Taoist concepts of the body significantly influenced the origins of Mokujiki.[1] In Taoist thought, "three worms" (sanchū or sanshi, 三尸, "three corpses") were believed to reside within the body, accelerating decay and death, especially when fed by cereals.[1] Consequently, abstaining from cereals was widely seen in East Asia as a means to prolong life and enhance spiritual abilities.[1]
Despite having no basis in Buddhist scripture, the practice is integral to Japanese Buddhist culture.[1] It is found in various Buddhist sects and is particularly prominent in Shugen-do and esoteric Buddhist traditions.[1] Kūkai, the founder of Shingon, is said to have abstained from cereals at different times, including his final days; his example has strongly influenced subsequent mokujiki practitioners.[3][1] It is likely that mokujiki spread from esoteric schools to Pure Land Buddhism.[1]
Variations
The requirements of mokujiki practice varied among spiritual communities and over time.[1] In the eighteenth-century Mokujiki Yōa Shōnin Eden, a distinction was made between the "great mokujiki", which involved abstaining from ten cereals, and the "lesser mokujiki", which involved abstaining from five.[1] The specific cereals omitted varied depending on the tradition.[1] For many practitioners, following the "lesser mokujiki" path was a prerequisite to the "greater".[1]
Some variations of the practice permitted the consumption of buckwheat, which served as a durable, easily-digestible, portable staple that did not require cooking.[1] Modern and contemporary practice often includes the consumption of buckwheat paste.[1] Although consuming buckwheat might appear inconsistent with mokujiki, adherents who eat it regard it as a wild mountain plant rather than one of the forbidden cultivated cereals.[1] This interpretation was common by the Edo period.[1] Wild oats and powdered broad beans have also served a similar role.[1]
Many practitioners avoided all cooked foods and salt; some went as far as to avoid seaweed.[1]