ZANSHIN 残心 - The Lingering Mind
Yamabushi training on Mt. Gassan.
Describing your emotions after a yamabushi training is never easy.
One participant from our Basic Yamabushi Training in October found a way. They shared a poem by Antonio Machado that captured the spirit perfectly:
Caminante, no hay camino
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.Wanderer, it is your footprints
winding down, and nothing more;
wanderer, no roads lie waiting,
roads you make as you explore.Step by step your road is charted,
and behind your turning head
lies the path that you have trodden,
not again for you to tread.- Antonio Machado
The chanting ends.
The drums reverberate.
The echo of the Horagai Conch fades.
The body relaxes, yet the sensations remain.
There's a word in Japanese for the sensation that lingers after an action is complete: Zanshin 残心 "the lingering mind".
Zanshin is your stance after your blade has sliced.
It’s your posture once the arrow is released.
It’s the quiet reverence that fills you after paying respects to the kami and buddha.
Many of our participants describe this same lingering awareness months, years even, after their training. It’s one of the hardest things to describe, yet it might just be the most powerful.
Zanshin, "the lingering mind": knowing you will never walk the same path twice, and the gratitude you walked it at all.
Zanshin Opportunity
Yamabushi training on Kinbo-san earlier last month.
Anyone who books a Masters or Basic yamabushi training for 2026 by the end of this year will receive a complimentary night's stay after their training, a chance to rest, reflect, and let Zanshin do its work. Just mention Zanshin when you inquire.
Best of the World to Travel in 2026
Haguro-san's National Treasure Five Story Pagoda.
We’ve long said Yamagata might just be Japan’s best-kept secret. Now National Geographic seems to agree, naming Yamagata Prefecture among the world’s best places to travel in 2026.
There was even special mention of the Dewa Sanzan mountains, where we host our Yamabushi trainings and run dewasanzan.com, as well as our partner pilgrim lodge Daishinbo.
