So like, I just listened to Craig Mod’s second interview on The Tim Ferriss podcast.
And,
I have some thoughts.
Firstly, if you’re following me because you love deep dives into Japan and Japanese culture and you haven’t heard of Craig Mod, do yourself a favour and go get acquainted.
It’s a prerequisite.
Now that’s out of the way…
They say to never meet your heroes.
I’ve met mine twice.
The first time was when Craig was making Tiny Barber, Post Office. He was in Kissa Cloak when I was there. The second time was last year during the Akinomine Autumn’s Peak Ritual. Craig had come not to see me (why would he?), but to see his dear friend and mentor John McBride, someone mentioned extensively in the podcast.
Now, strictly speaking, we yamabushi don’t have ranks. Well, we do to help us organise things more easily, i.e. more senior yamabushi help less senior yamabushi with trivial yamabushi matters. However, we are all students of nature, and therefore it’s an even playing field.
In saying that, John is my senior yamabushi. So in a way, he’s kind of more yamabushi than me.
That’s right,
I’m saying this guy is more yamabushi than the Kiwi Yamabushi.
Because he is.
Craig talks about it in the podcast, but John has been walking around Japan since the 80s. Which, for those counting, is when I was born.
John has the craziest background story to boot, but that’s a story for another time. Right now I’d like to draw your attention to John McBride’s Great Walks of Japan, if you haven’t heard of it already. This is probably the pinnacle of walking in Japan from the perspective of a native English speaker. (It was also inspiration for this article on Matsuo Basho I wrote many moons ago).
In all honesty,
I too would love to emulate both Craig and John on their long walks around Japan. I’ve been compiling my own list of routes to travel, other than the Edo Five Routes (Tokaido, Nakasendo, Koshu Kaido, Nikko Kaido, and Oshu Kaido), that I discuss extensively in this article. There are a few around Tohoku. One I would realistically be able to do soon would be the 7 main routes up Gassan, for example.
Either way,
Craig does mention yamabushi training a little bit, and how his walks are similar to Shugyo (training). Which, from what I’ve seen, I would have to agree with. Mostly, at least. The only part I wouldn’t agree with would be we do shugyo to do shugyo, not to produce things.
Not that Craig says anything of the sort.
And either way, the way Craig is able to create such beautiful work is I think due to sheer discipline, and it’s something that I too would love to emulate.
In due time.
For now though, I highly recommend listening to the podcast (link again), and checking out some of John’s videos!
Oh, and there’s also this little number too.