This discipline, which led to a real self-hummification in life, included three phases of a thousand days each, the first of which was based on a very strict diet based on berries and nuts to eliminate all traces of corruptible fat after death.

Over the next thousand days, the monk ingested only poisonous barks and resins and, later, a tea of ​​urushi sap, used as a base for lacquers and paints, capable of making him vomit and sweat until completely dehydrated. The secretions emitted from his skin in this way would have protected him after death from the aggression of worms and bacteria.

During the last thousand days the monk, now reduced to skin and bones, was closed in a stone tomb, sitting in the lotus position, without food or water, with only a tube to breathe and a bell, which he had the task of play every day to let people know that he was still alive.

When the sound stopped, the tube was removed and the opening sealed. Three years later the mound was reopened by the disciples: if the mummification had been completed, and this rarely happened, the body was sumptuously dressed in red and gold vestments, and prepared to be venerated in the centuries to come, as it became Bodhisattva.

You can find the full version of this report on:
OASIS – Environmental culture magazine – n. 191
Japan, lights and shadows of the land of the rising sun – volume published by White Star – National Geographic
Screening – Meeting “Japan, lights and shadows of the land of the rising sun”
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