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.
When you're in the middle of a creative project, and the ideas stop flowing, I often find it helps to take your mind off the project by doing something completely different. When I'm working on a creative project, like an article or translation, I find that getting away from my work environment and doing something …
When you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to another. -Peter Mallouk from his Tim Ferriss podcast. By having a list of basic principles or things that you prioritize over others, when someone asks you to do something, you can say no with a bit of confidence. If the person was truly …
The Kiwi philosophy of ‘she’ll be right’ is sometimes at odds with Japanese culture, except at the same time it also helps form the basis of one of their core principles. The philosophy of ‘she’ll be right’ is that things will all turn out ok in the end. This is a great philosophy to have, …
KIWI YAMABUSHI
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Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan
timb008@gmail.com
All photos my own unless otherwise stated. Contact for more.