HIJIRI are Japanese lay ascetics and influential antagonists of priests and monks. The role of the hijiri in Japanese folk religion is far more important than that of the ministers of the official religions (priests and monks in Shintō and Buddhism, respectively). The hijiri is in many ways the spokesman of the common man. Hijiri are the forerunners of the lay leaders of modern Japanese sects, who are considered to embody the spirit of that traditional role. The concept of hijiri dates back to the earliest known period of Japanese history, when the hijiri (lit., "he who knows the sun") determined and appointed the years, months, and days, and must have been connected with an unofficial and spontaneous cult of the sun goddess Amaterasu. The hijiri gradually came to be considered a sage, the one who, like the sun, let the light of his knowledge shine on others...