Passing through the womb - Passing through the womb

Japanese: 胎内くぐり - たいないくぐり

A name given to places where one passes through narrow caves or crevices at mountain and sacred sites in various regions. Shugenja and ascetics, or followers led by them, viewed mountains and sacred sites as the afterlife or the womb, and traveled through them to practice asceticism and performed the practice of pseudo-death and rebirth. By passing through the womb, they symbolically put this concept into practice and confirmed. In this way, they acted out the idea of discarding all sin and impurity, purifying the body and soul, and being reborn anew. The background to this idea is related to the fact that caves were regarded as entrances to the afterlife on the one hand, and as places to revive the vitality of the soul on the other hand, and were considered sacred.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

各地の山岳や霊地の行場で，狭い洞窟や割れ目を通り抜ける場所に付けられた名称。修験者や行者，ないしはそれに率いられた信者たちは，山岳や霊地を他界または胎内とみて，その中を巡歴して修行し，いったん死んで生まれ変わる擬死再生の行を行ったが，胎内くぐりによってその観念を象徴的に実践して確認した。これによっていっさいの罪穢を捨て，肉体と魂を浄化し，新たに生まれ変わるという考え方を行動で示したのである。この考えの背景には，洞窟が一方では他界への入口とみなされ，他方では霊魂のこもる活力を復活する場として，神聖視されたことが関連している。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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