Of all the beliefs concerning death in ancient Japan, however, the most persistent is that which connects it to mountains. From the very beginning mountains were considered the dwelling-places of gods, and were held sacred as such. The summits of mountains were sites for Shinto shrines and, later, for Buddhist temples. Might the ancient Japanese have seen in mountain peaks the points of contact between the gods, who originate in the sun, and men, who dwell on the ground? The Japanese word for Shinto gods is kami, which signifies "the top" as well - a hint, perhaps, that the gods look out from mountain peaks below to the narrow plains inhabited by people.

Not death, however, but life is the province of Shinto gods. In parts of northern Japan, mountain deities are worshipped also as gods of birth, and in Aomori Prefecture, also in the north, maturation ceremonies for youths are held in the mountains. There is evidence in classical literature that mountain sites were chosen for betrothal ceremonies as well. It is believed in many areas in Japan that in spring, mountain gods become gods of the field and descend to the plains to protect crops, returning to their mountain homes only in autumn after the harvest. Mountains are thus both the source of life and the place to which life returns.

The outlook of the ancient Japanese, then, was basically optimistic. The Buddhist message that the world is a fleeting illusion had not yet reached their ears: this life is a substantial reality, drawing vitality from gods who reside in nature. The unbridgeable abyss between life and death had not yet opened up, and the dying apparently believed that they would return, by one means or another, to the land of the living.