yamabushi

The Shugen-dō practitioner, the yamabushi (literally, “one who bows down in the mountains”), engages in spiritual and physical disciplines in order to attain magical power effective against evil spirits. Mountains, considered in folk religions “other worlds,” were for the esoteric Buddhists training grounds for ascetics.

…preached by itinerant monks (yamabushi), who offered prayers to cure illness or bring happiness. While its teachings centered on traditional Tendai and Shingon Buddhism, it also contained beliefs drawn from Shintō, religious Taoism, and elsewhere to meet the religious feelings of the people. A new faith in healing spirits…

…and mountain hermits known as yamabushi probably came closest to Taoism in their techniques for prolonging life (abstinence from grains, etc.) and their magical arts (exorcisms, sword dance) and objects (mirrors, charms), which must have reached them through the Tantric elements in Shingon. Taoist mysticism lives on in that it…