On September 11, 2026, a 31-year-old Japanese monk named Sogaku Taguchi entered one of the most extreme forms of religious discipline still practised today. Taguchi, the chief monk of Nanzambo Temple, part of the historic Enryaku-ji complex on Mount Hiei in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, northeast of Kyoto, has begun a 12-year period of complete isolation that will not end until September 11, 2038. By the time he emerges, Taguchi will be 43 years old. During these 12 years, Taguchi will not leave the temple grounds, meet another person, or have any contact with the outside world. He will reside at Jodo-in hall, the mausoleum dedicated to Saicho, the founder of the Tendai school of Buddhism, within the Enryaku-ji complex. His daily routine will involve strict religious observance, cleaning the hall, and preparing food offerings for Saicho’s tomb each day, a schedule that will continue unchanged even through Mount Hiei’s notoriously harsh winters.
Becoming a Jishin , the “true watcher”
Taguchi’s isolation marks his entry into the role of Jishin, meaning “true watcher,” a position dedicated entirely to tending Saicho’s tomb and living according to his teachings. According to Enryaku-ji Temple, Taguchi is only the 118th person to take on this role since formal records began in 1699, and just the eighth person to do so since the end of World War II, making it an extraordinarily rare undertaking even within Japan’s monastic tradition.Before entering seclusion, Taguchi spent roughly a year preparing through a separate, gruelling practice called Kosogyo, which he began in September of the previous year. Kosogyo requires a monk to offer incense to the Buddhas 3,000 times a day, chant their names, and perform repeated prostrations. Once this was complete, Taguchi took part in a Jisei Jukai ordination ceremony, formally marking his readiness to begin the 12-year isolation. Speaking to reporters before entering seclusion, Taguchi explained his motivation, saying that a desire had grown in his heart to live according to the teachings of Dengyo Daishi, a posthumous title given to Saicho, and that he had walked the path of a monk with that goal in mind.
A practice with a history of real danger
This isolation is a distinct practice from Mount Hiei’s other famously demanding discipline, Kaihogyo, in which monks walk thousands of kilometres around the mountain over a seven-year period, with certain stages involving extended walking and prolonged fasting. However, both practices are rooted in the same tradition of extreme physical and spiritual discipline associated with Mount Hiei’s monks. Multiple reports covering Taguchi’s seclusion note that this specific 12-year isolation practice has, in the past, proven fatal for some of the monks who attempted it, a detail that underscores just how physically demanding the routine, particularly through repeated harsh winters with minimal contact or outside support, can be over more than a decade.
A tradition that has endured for centuries
Taguchi’s seclusion is part of a tradition at Enryaku-ji, a Tendai Buddhist monastery originally established in 788, that is sometimes referred to as the “12 years of retreat in the mountain”. The scale of commitment involved, not simply the duration, but the complete severance from ordinary human contact for over a decade, places it among the most demanding forms of religious discipline still practised anywhere in the world today. For now, Taguchi’s daily life will be defined entirely by solitude, ritual, and routine, with no scheduled contact with family, former colleagues, or the outside world until his seclusion is set to end in September 2038.
