Attitudes toward Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 467

as they do to the Westerner; they are benevolent creatures controlling the elements and
guarding sources of wisdom (Sowerby 1940: 154).
FIGURE 9.2 Yamabushi descend Omine San, one of the most important sacred mountains for practi-
tioners of the Japanese mountain climbing religion of Shugendo (Photo by E. Bernbaum.)
Until the third century A.D., the Chinese regarded mountains as dangerous places of
supernatural power that only those with proper spiritual preparation could enter safely
to engage in religious practices. Around the fourth century, as result of a shift of the
Chinese capital to more attractive mountains in the south and growing discontent with
the confining strictures of imperial bureaucracy, literati from the court began going to
the mountains for recreation, pursuing painting and poetry as they walked and sought
inspiration in beautiful mountain landscapes. A similar transformation of attitudes took
place in Europe more than a thousand years later (Mathieu 2011). In a very real sense,