October 14, 2015 (Mainichi Japan)
OTSU -- The 41-year-old chief monk at Zenju-in of the Enryaku-ji temple here -- head temple for the Tendai Buddhist sect -- began a nine-day fast on Oct. 13 viewed as the most difficult part of the "sennichi kaihogyo," or the "1,000-day walk" from the temple on Mount Hiei to Kyoto.
Chief monk Kogen Kamahori will seclude himself in the Mudo-ji temple's Myo-o Hall, also on Mount Hiei. He will not eat, drink or sleep for nine days, committing the time to repeating the mantra of Acala, a Buddhist deity, 100,000 times. Kamahori is the first devotee to perform the acetic ritual in eight years, and is the 13th since the end of World War II.
The ritual begins on the 700th day of the 1,000-day walk, and if completed, the monk is revered as an incarnation of Acala. On Oct. 13, Kamahori was led to Myo-o Hall by some 60 people, including other monks who have completed the fast. Some 500 people gathered to see Kamahori enter the hall.
Ask him go screw himself, thatÅ› his job to fast, not my job to know.
If itÅ› my job to know, I will rejoice because we practise, yet there are tens of thousands of people that rather he choked on a grain when he broke fast.