Shugendō is a Buddha sect that blends pre-Buddhist mountain worship, Shinto and shamanistic beliefs, animism, ascetic practices, Chinese Yin-Yang mysticism and Taoist magic, and the rituals and spells of Esoteric Buddhism in the hope of achieving magical skills, medical powers, and long life. Shugendo developed the practice of ritual ablutions in the rivers, the sea or under the waterfalls.
