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A reader kindly asked me to write about Shakujo staffs, one of the tools of the yamabushi. If you’d love me to explore anything yamabushi or even remotely Japan-related, you can leave a comment on Kiwiyamabushi.com or reach out in the chat section there. Alternatively, just reply to this email and I’ll see what I can do.

So let’s talk about Shakujo.

What is a Shakujo?

Shakujo (written 錫杖) are staffs Buddhist monks and sometimes yamabushi carry. The stick part is usually made of wood, often lacquered black, but what sets a Shakujo apart from the Kongodzue sticks yamabushi are known for is the metallic, pointy top with at least two large hoops and smaller rings around them.

Close up, the top looks like this:

Just like the coins you forgot in your pocket, these rings jingle when you shake a Shakujo or simply walk with one. That jingling may even be where the name "shakujo" comes from in Japanese1.

There is a recording of Master Hoshino using the Shakujo during a ritual on this page (ctrl+f Shakujo and it will come up). While you’re at it, give Mat Eric Hart a follow. Mat did an incredible job capturing the sounds of Haguro-san and the yamabushi a few years back when I met him. 

Shaku-shaku.

Can you hear it?

I know them as Shakujo, but in Sanskrit they’re called khakkhara. In English, they’re sometimes called a pewter staff. In Chinese, they can be known as a “tiger pewter staff” because they’re said to ward off tigers.

Yes,

Tigers!!

Because China does indeed have tigers (I had to check!).

But you know what? Here in Japan the verdict is still out on whether bear bells actually work. Frankly, I don’t want to tempt fate, but I will say this: I have come across a bear during yamabushi training before.

At night.

It was about 20m in front of us on the other side of the road. Our master loudly banged his Kongodzue stick on the ground while shouting in a big voice and the bear ran off into the forest. At that time, at least our master, myself, and one other yamabushi had bells on that would have acted the same as bear bells.

So if a Shakujo can ward off tigers, maybe we should have brought one instead?

Who knows?

One more reason to take my conch with me into the mountains!

Why use a Shakujo though?

Besides tigers and bears, Shakujo are said to scare off snakes, spiders, and even warn insects not to get trampled on. Scaring off animals was apparently the original purpose. Ancient Buddhist texts even say it was the only purpose2. 

Knowing where monks and yamabushi tend to wander, 

that makes a lot of sense.

Either way, just know that these other uses likely came later. 

The sound of a Shakujo is said to help clear away worldly desires and open up the path to wisdom. In other words, the sound wakes sentient beings up to Buddhist teachings.

Shakujo also ward off unwanted spirits, purify the area, and notify people during alms collection that a mendicant monk is near.

Like this guy.

Plus, for yamabushi and priests, the Shakujo can be waved rhythmically to keep time during rituals, just like how monks beat a wooden fish drum. Or I guess, 

a metronome.

Lastly, the Shakujo has also been used as a weapon by Shaolin monks, or at the very least Shorinji Kenpo practitioners (a Japanese offshoot of Shaolin kung fu), and even warrior yamabushi. 

Something like this I guess:

Its metal tip could be used to strike or deflect blows, while the rings could distract or intimidate enemies with their sound. In some martial traditions, especially in China, the Shakujo was considered both a sacred item and a last-resort weapon for self-defense during pilgrimages. For warrior monks in both China and Japan, being unarmed didn’t mean being defenceless.

Why Buddhist Monks and Yamabushi Jingle When They Walk

Shakujo come in all shapes and sizes. And I really mean that. Some are too big to be practical. The biggest are around 170cm — taller than the average Japanese woman. These lean against walls or stands and, during rituals, are rotated rigorously by priests to really make their presence known.

The Shakujo, not the Japanese women.

Some yamabushi walk with lighter staffs, others carry small handheld Shakujo, like the kind Master Hoshino has. The smaller ones are used during Buddhist rituals instead of the Furisuzu bell. Training under Master Hoshino, that’s when we recite the Heart Sutra or chant Shingon mantras for the various Buddhas and Gongen avatars such as Fudo Myo’o.

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What the Rings and Loops Mean

A Yamabushidō participant actually made a great video breaking it down, you can find it here:

Shakujo vary in the number of rings and loops, but I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever seen ones with six rings. According to various Buddhist teachings, the number of loops and rings on a Shakujo carries symbolic weight:

• Four loops: The Four Noble Truths (Truth of Suffering, Truth of Cause of Suffering, Truth of End of Suffering, and Truth of Path that Leads to the End Of Suffering, source)
• Six rings: The Six Perfections (Pāramitā: giving, ethical discipline, patience, vigorous effort, meditation, wisdom (prajñā)), or the Six Realms of Saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth
• Twelve rings: The Twelvefold Chain of Cause and Effect. This is also why yamabushi Tokin, the black hats we wear during the Akinomine Autumn’s Peak Ritual, have twelve folds. 

Famous Shakujo Bearers

The Pewter Staff Sutra (Japanese link) says monks should carry a Shakujo because the Buddhas of the past, present, and future all did. 

If that’s not a good enough reason, 

I don’t know what is.

Besides Daizan-san, here are a few notable beings who carry Shakujo: Jizo-san, The Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara, En no Gyoja, and, um… Master Hoshino:

Jizō-san

Perhaps the most iconic Shakujo bearer is Jizō (Kṣitigarbha). His staff usually has six rings, a reference to the Six Realms of Saṃsāra (as detailed in the video by Daizan-san), which you would already know if you had read my article on Jizo-san:

• Hell
• Hungry Ghosts
• Beasts
• Humans
• Titans
• Gods

Why does Jizō carry a Shakujo?

• To guide beings through the Six Realms: His staff jingles to signal his presence, even in hell, helping lost souls find the way.
• To ward off danger: Historically, as we covered in part one, it scared off animals and demons alike.
• To wake us up: The ringing reminds us of karma, impermanence, and compassion.

Jizo-san’s Shakujo is accompanied by the wish-fulfilling jewel in the other hand and the lotus he stands on. This gives you a complete picture: a being committed to walking with us through the darkest realms, lighting the way as he goes.

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Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara (Senju Kannon, 千手観音)

Avalokiteśvara, Kannon as they’re known in Japan, is the bodhisattva of compassion. In their thousand-armed form(Senju Kannon), each hand holds a different object representing a unique method for saving sentient beings.

As you can probably guess, among these is sometimes a shakujo staff.

Just like with Jizō, the shakujo is more than just a prop, it’s a symbol of compassion in motion. 

Why does Avalokiteśvara (sometimes) carry a Shakujo?

• Shake beings awake from ignorance,
• Ward off evil in even the darkest realms,
• Guide the lost with its ringing sound.

The Shakujo is a literal wake-up call, a reminder that no one is beyond help, and that even in the most hellish conditions, compassion will find a way through. In Avalokiteśvara’s thousand hands, the shakujo becomes one of many tools for liberation.

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En no Gyōja

The legendary founder of Shugendō, En no Gyoja, is almost always depicted holding a shakujo.

Why does En no Gyōja carry a Shakujo?

• Protection during ascetic training in the wild mountains,
• Mastery over spirits and demons he was said to command,
• Spiritual authority as a guide between realms.

Shugendō practice is all about crossing the boundary between the profane and the sacred. In that sense, the jingling of the shakujo wasn't just for scaring off animals, it was a way to declare one’s passage into the unseen worlds.

As mentioned before, legends even say that En no Gyōja used his staff to command divine beings, ward off evil, and summon spiritual forces to aid in his mountain practices. It was both a practical tool for survival and a mystical tool for transcendence.

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Master Hoshino and the Shakujo

Shakujo is one of those things. It’s Buddhist in nature, but I’m a Shinto-based yamabushi. One of the weird guys. When we train through Dewa Sanzan Jinja, we don’t use Shakujo.

However, I also train under Master Hoshino. He does things the old way, Shinbutsu Shūgō, the fusion of Shinto and Buddhism, just like it was before the Meiji-era split.

Yamabushi doesn’t really work by asking. 

I mean, I could ask, but Master Hoshino would probably just snap at me and tell me to just do it. So, I have to watch Master Hoshino very closely to see how he does things and take mental notes instead. 

Even at (nearly) 80, Master Hoshino is a tank. A living, breathing Fudomyo’o. He goes up and down Gassan, even on a hot day, with just 500ml of water. He’s also somehow transcended sunblock, to say nothing of his prowess under a waterfall. However, multiple times I’ve seen him wipe his brow with his hokan, the white turban thing we wear. So I guess that makes him human.

Why am I telling you this? 

Well, because even though Master Hoshino travels as lightly as possible, he always carries with him a furisuzu bell, and a Shakujo. Lately, he’s been leaving the conch at home, maybe because some of us are finally getting the hang of it? I think I can finally get a decent sound now. Took a few years, though.

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One Staff, Many Paths

Whether it’s Jizō walking through hell, Avalokiteśvāra reaching out with compassion, En no Gyōja commanding spirits, or Master Hoshino climbing sacred peaks, the staff is the same, but the purpose shifts.

Protection. Compassion. Mastery. Continuity.

The Shakujo isn’t just a prop. It’s a tool of transformation. A symbol of movement between realms, between states of being, and between the seen and unseen.

Every jingle is a reminder: we’re not stuck. We’re still walking. Still waking up. So the next time you hear it, pipe up. It might save you from a bear or something much more sinister.

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Want to hear more symbols like this explained through the lens of rural Japan? Subscribe to the Kiwi Yamabushi Substack or explore Daily Yamabushi.

This article from the Kiwi Yamabushi newsletter got more than 1,000 reads, so I decided to put it here for everyone. Get articles just like this in your inbox by signing up here. Paid subscribers get priority access and access to the full archive of over 100 articles, but you can find a lot of the articles for free here.