The Edo period (1600–1868) pilgrimage to the three sacred mountains of Dewa (Dewa Sanzan 出羽三山) culminated with the veneration of Mt. Yudono 湯殿山 (present day Yamagata prefecture), which was regarded as the most sacred site (Oku no in 奥の院) of this mandalized mountainous landscape. Focusing on the preliminary purification practices (zen shōjin 前精進), which were performed by Yudono pilgrims (nobori kudari no gyōnin 上り下りの行人) in ascetic huts (gyōya 行屋) built within the village, I argue against a Turnerian view of pilgrimage as a purely kinetic ritual characterized by extra-ordinariness by demonstrating that immobility and stasis were fundamental elements of these purification practices. Central to this talk are Yudono pilgrims who belonged to the Yudono religious confraternities (Yudonosan kō 湯殿山講) in the Yonezawa 米沢 area. Secluding themselves in their ascetic huts, which they interpreted as architectural metaphors of Mt. Yudono, these pilgrims realized what Eva Rosander defines as a process of “religious imaginary mobility.”

The ascetic hut itself was a ‘mimic building,’ which re-created and symbolized the sacred mountain within the village. This virtual indoor pilgrimage, which preceded the outdoor one and lasted for about three weeks, allowed peasants to perform intense religious practices from dusk to dawn without compromising the ordinariness of their rural life, which included agricultural work during the day. In this way, immobility and mimesis were just as essential for pilgrimage as mobility and reality were.