is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in the

Chūgoku region The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 7,328,339 ...

of western

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It runs in an east–west direction and stretches approximately from

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

in the east to the coast of

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

. The range also reaches under the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The two tallest mountains in the group are Daisen and Mount Hyōno, which are and , respectively. Many other mountains in the range are also over , while some of the smaller mountains are less than .

Granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

is the most common stone found among the mountains, much of which has been exposed through erosion.

Geography

Other than Daisen, most of the mountains run along the border of Tottori and

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

prefectures and the border of Shimane and

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

prefectures. The mountains form a

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

and natural barrier in western Japan between the

San'in Region The is an area in the southwest of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It consists of the northern part of the Chūgoku region, facing the Sea of Japan. Specifically, it is the two prefectures of Shimane Prefecture, Shimane and Tottori Prefecture ...

to the north and the San'yō Region to the south.

Major mountains

Mount Daisen is a dormant stratovolcano in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It has an elevation of . This mountain is the highest in the Chūgoku region, and the most important volcano on the Daisen volcanic belt, which is a part of the Southwestern Honshu volca ...

(大山), * Mount Hyōno (氷ノ山), * Mount Mimuro (三室山), * Mount Osorakan (恐羅漢山), * Mount Ushiro (後山), * Mount Kanmuri (冠山), * Mount Jakuchi (寂地山), *

Mount Ōgi is a mountain located in Hyōgo and Tottori Prefectures with an altitude of . It has been selected as one of the 100 famous mountains in Kansai and 300 famous mountains in Japan. It is one of the representative volcanoes in the Kansai region ...

(扇ノ山), *

Mount Dōgo , is a volcano, volcanic mountain located on the border of Nichinan, Tottori, Nichinan, Tottori Prefecture and Shōbara, Hiroshima, Shōbara, Hiroshima Prefecture. The mountain has an Topographical summit, elevation of . The name of Mount Dōgo i ...

(道後山), * Mount Hiba (比婆山), * Mount Nagi (那岐山), *

Mount Hiru Mount Hiru (蛭ヶ岳 ''Hiru-ga-take'') is the tallest mountain of the Tanzawa Mountains with a height of . Gallery Image:Mt.Hirugatake from Mt.Onigaiwanoatama01.JPG, Image:Tanzawa-shumyaku from Mt.Nabewari.jpg, Image:Tanzawa-shumyaku from ...

(蒜山), * Mount Sentsū (船通山), * Mount Myōken (妙見山), * Mount Sambe (三瓶山), * Mount Ōsa (大佐山), * Mount Sen (千ヶ峰), * Mount Hōbutsu (宝仏山), * Mount Seppiko (雪彦山), * Mount Aono (青野山), * Mount Misumi (三角山), *

Mount Haku , or Mount Hakusan (commonly referred to as simply Hakusan), is a dormant stratovolcano in Japan. It is located on the borders of Gifu and Ishikawa, on the island of Honshu. Mount Haku is thought to have first been active 300,000 to 400,000 y ...

(白山),

Rivers

The Chūgoku Mountains are the source of several rivers in western Japan. All flow either north to the

Japan Sea 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 ...

or south to the

Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large in area and is either completely surrounded by dry land (landlocked), or connected to an ocean by a river, strait or " arm of ...

with the exception of the

Gōnokawa River The is a river that runs through Hiroshima and Shimane prefectures in Japan. It is the largest river in the Chūgoku region. It is also called the Gōgawa River () and, in Hiroshima, the Enokawa River (). The mainstream originates from Mount As ...

(), which runs along the mountain range in Hiroshima and Shimane prefectures. The Sendai River (), the Tenjin River (), the

Hino River The is a major river in the western part of Tottori Prefecture. The river flows east-northeast for , and is the longest river in the prefecture. The Hino River emerges from the Chūgoku Mountains. The source of the river is at an elevation of i ...

(), and the Kando River () all run steeply from the Chūgoku Mountains to the Japan Sea. The Yoshii River (), the Asahi River (), and the

Ōta River is a river in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Geography Its main stream originates in (1,339 m) and empties, through a flood-control channel, into the Seto Inland Sea. The river is one of the major rivers in the prefecture and descends ...

() form a broader

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A ''floodplain'' is part of the process, bei ...

to the south of the mountain range and empty in to the Inland Sea.

Economy

The Chūgoku Mountains are a source of iron sand, and the region was home to some of the earliest production of ironware in Japan. The broad tablelands of the mountain region support cattle ranches, notably for the production of ''

wagyu Wagyu (, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ''wagyū'', ) is the collective name for the four principal List of Japanese cattle breeds, Japanese breeds of beef cattle. All wagyū cattle originate from early twentieth-century cross-breeding between ...

'' beef. The numerous rivers of the Chūgoku Mountains support an extensive network of

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

production in western Japan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chugoku Mountains Mountain ranges of Hyōgo Prefecture Mountain ranges of Okayama Prefecture Mountain ranges of Hiroshima Prefecture Mountain ranges of Shimane Prefecture Mountain ranges of Tottori Prefecture Mountain ranges of Yamaguchi Prefecture