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Anthropological research on Shugendō 修験道 is far outnumbered by those of religious studies and history, yet it offers innovative perspectives with multidisciplinary implications. 1 The method of analysis that distinguishes the anthropology of Shugendo from those of other disciplines is the emphasis that anthropologists place on understanding Shugendo within and beyond specific contexts: considering the relational dynamics, for instance, between Shugendo and various dimensions of social life in contemporary Japan, while striving to discern its ontological insights-what Shugendo can teach us, directly or indirectly, about the human condition. Situating its pantheistic ontology, rites, and political history in the gamut of anthropological thought, ethnographies of specific Shugendo contexts can lead to more general theories of asceticism and the soteriological trinity of life, death, and rebirth, which is pervasive in Asian thought (see Obeyesekere 2002) Lobetti's recent work, Ascetic Practices in Japanese Religion, is a solid contribution to the anthropology of Shugendo because it offers a multifaceted analysis of contemporary Shugendo, exploring its influence on sociality and contemplating its more existential aspects. A common problem in the study of contemporary Shugendo is tracing ascetic social networks because modern communication and transportation technologies-for example, social media websites and bullet trains-collapse time and space in ways that extend social networks far beyond any "local" context. As such, contemporary ascetics herald from everywhere to attend Shugendo retreats and it is difficult to determine the locus of their faith. Ascetics tend to be religious pluralists and belong, in varying capacities, to other sects and religions. This makes tracing ascetic networks a challenging task. In Ascetic Practices in Japanese Religion, Lobetti rectifies how asceticism is manifesting in the complicated inter-sectarian networks of contemporary religious affiliation by participating in retreats throughout the country, attempting to determine what the core of Shugendo, in its ubiquity yet multifarious orthodoxies, might be-for those who leap between sects and rites and for those who are devoted to one in particular. Divided into five chapters and Tullio Federico Lobetti, Ascetic Practices in Japanese Religion

Rituals have played a vital role in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters that struck northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011 (subsequently referred to as “3.11”). Rituals have enabled survivors to differentiate social order from the immediate chaos of disaster, to mourn, to overcome grief, and to exorcise the spirits of the disaster dead. Yet, much remains to be learned about the transformative potential of ritual after 3.11. The significance of pilgrimage, for instance, which is a prominent aspect of religious practice in Japan, has received minimal attention. In this article, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Dewa Sanzan, a sacred mountain range in Yamagata Prefecture, to discuss mountain pilgrimage for post-disaster memorialization. I argue that the event of 3.11 expanded the ontological meaning of the summit of Gassan 月山 (Mount Moon), thought to be an axis between the world of the living and that of the ancestral dead. Pilgrimage to the peak of Gassan has become a path of remembrance and overcoming, a formula for posthumous care, and an act of hope in post-disaster Japan.

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