Located at the base of the

Tango Peninsula was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichid ...

Kyoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture ...

, Ōeyama (大江山) mountain range extends over Yosano-cho,

Fukuchiyama file:Fukuchiyama City Hall.jpg, Fukuchiyama City Hall file:福知山駅プラットフォームより View toward northeast from platform of Fukuchiyama station 2011.1.10 - panoramio.jpg, Fukuchiyama city center is a Cities of Japan, city in north ...

and Miyazu. The highest peak, Senjogatake (千丈ヶ嶽) has an elevation of 832.5 meters. The range is also called Yosa-no-oyama (与謝大山) and is best known for the legend of

Shuten-dōji Shuten-dōji (, also sometimes called , or ) is a mythical ''oni'' or demon leader of Japan, who according to legend was killed by the hero Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Minamoto no Raikō. Although decapitated, the demon's detached head still took a bi ...

. It is also known for the sea of clouds that is visible from points of high elevation. On August 3, 2007, the mountain range was designated as a Quasi-National Park under the name Tango-Amanohashidate-Ōeyama Quasi-National Park.

Ōeyama mines

The Ōeyama mountain range is geologically composed of stratum with basic bedrock pushed up deep from within the earth. The range is rich in metal veins, and place names related to metals such as 'kana-ya' (金屋, metal house) are common. In 1917, a mineral deposit was found in the mountain, mined for nickel, and used for producing weapons from 1933 to the end of the Pacific War. Minerals were carried by industrial railway (Kaya Railway) to a refinery in Iwataki-cho bordering the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

. Many miners came from the Republic of China and Korea. In August 1998, sixteen Chinese miners filed a damage suit to the Kyoto District Court for the harsh forced labor. On September 29, 2004, Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co., (Tokyo Metropolitan Government) Ltd. paid the total amount of 21 million dollars for the settlement, and a reconciliation was partly effected at the Osaka High Court. However, on May 12, 2007, in the appeal hearing, the

Supreme Court of Japan The , located in Hayabusachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law. It has the power of judicial review, which allows it ...

decided to completely dismiss the damage suit against the Japanese government. Some nickel mines were used as Allied prisoner of war camps until the end of World War II.

Folklore

There are three legends of

oni An ( ) is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are believed to live in caves or deep in the mountains or in hell. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like th ...

extermination in Ōeyama. One of the legends in the

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

holds that

Emperor Sujin , also known as in the , and or in the was the tenth Emperor of Japan. While Sujin is the first emperor whose existence historians widely accept, he is still referred to as a "legendary emperor" due to a lack of information available and beca ...

's brother Hikoimasuno-miko (日子坐王) exterminated Kugumimi-no-Mikasa (玖賀耳之御笠), a

tsuchigumo is a historical Japanese derogatory term for renegade local clans, primarily during the Asuka, Nara, and early Heian periods, and also the name for a race of spider-like in Japanese folklore. Alternative names for the historical groups include , ...

. The second legend is that

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half ...

's younger brother Imperial Prince Maroko defeated three ogres named Eiko (英胡), Karuashi (軽足) and Tsuchiguma (土熊). The third is the famous legend of

(酒呑童子). Most believe that 'Ōeyama,' where Shuten-dōji resided, is a mountain along the Ōeyama range in Tango. However, some say it might have been a mountain along the

San'indō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. ''San'in'' translates to "the shaded side of a mountain", while ''dō'', depending on the context, can mean either a road, o ...

on the border between

Yamashiro Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai. It overlaps the southern part of modern Kyoto Prefecture on Honshū. Aliases include , the rare , and . It is classified as an upper province in the '' Engishiki''. Yamashiro Province included Kyoto it ...

and

Tanba Province was a province of Japan in the area of central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo Prefectures. Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima. Tango, Wakasa, and Yamashiro provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichid ...

s in

Nishikyō-ku, Kyoto is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Its name means "west capital ward" and it is situated on the western edge of the city, to the south of center. The ward was established on October 1, 1976, after it wa ...

, which is spelled '大枝山' in kanji. The Japan Ogre Exchange Museum (日本の鬼の交流博物館) was built on the site of an abandoned copper mine at the foot of Ōeyama in 1993. The Tango region where the mountain range is located had close contacts with the Asian continent from ancient times, and immigrants were engaged in metal work; with their advanced technique in metal refining, and having accumulated a large fortune, those who recognized this in the capital sent an army to pillage the wealth, and rule the region. One theory holds that people created the tsuchigumo and oni extermination legends from these incidents in order to justify and glorify themselves; at the same time, some propose that immigrants were in fact called ogres because they gathered to become thieves and terrorized the region.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oeyama Mountains of Kyoto Prefecture