KIWI YAMABUSHI
Kia ora Koutou, I'm Tim Bunting, The Kiwi Yamabushi. I am a practicing Dewa Sanzan Yamabushi Japanese mountain ascetic (What's a Yamabushi?). I have been living in Yamagata, Tohoku, north Japan, since 2010. Since 2016, I have trained as a yamabushi under Master Fumihiro Hoshino through Daishobo pilgrim's lodge on Haguro-san, and through Dewa Sanzan Jinja. If you want to find out more about how you too can train in the ways of Shugendo, check out Yamabushido.jp (tell them I sent you).
In my spare time I write stories about the overlooked side of Japan, namely up here in the Tohoku region. I write a daily blog, have a newsletter with over 1,000 subscribers, have a YouTube channel also with over 1,000 subscribers, and am on most socials as @kiwiyamabushi.
I am currently on a mission to summit and document all 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata.
I am available for online consultation, public speaking in both English and Japanese, and I am able to guide you on The Dewa Sanzan mountains by working through Yamabushido.jp or DewaSanzan.com. As a Master Yamabushi and the creator of Dewasanzan.com, I believe I am the most knowledgable native English speaker on these three mountains.
POPULAR ARTICLES
My newsletter articles are free to read on Substack for a week, but you can just get them sent to your email for free if you subscribe. After that, they are only available to paid subscribers. However, articles that get more than 1,000 reads I put here so everyone can enjoy them. All of the articles can be found here.
DAILY YAMABUSHI
Here are some of my Daily Yamabushi posts. Get more here.
You know the universal income? Well, I was thinking of a way that I feel would be fair for someone employing me. For the past few years I’ve been sort of away from a salary or being paid per hour, not completely yet, but it’s a method that I much rather prefer. I don’t like …
151 years ago, at the dawn of the Meiji Restoration, having admitted defeat the Shonai Clan were expecting a harsh punishment, such as the forfeiture of land, a large fine, or the sending of troops and officials to other parts of the country, to be dealt to them at the hands of Kuroda Kiyotaka, a …
Aesthetically pleasing. Serves tea. Valuable. Special significance. Sits in a cupboard. Takes up space. Why do we have it? You realise how useless some things are when you're put in charge of cleaning up after someone else. I'm not going to let that become me. Get rid of stuff if you never use it, you're …
KIWI YAMABUSHI
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Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan
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All photos my own unless otherwise stated. Contact for more.