is a dormant

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

Tottori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...

, Japan. It has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of . This mountain is the highest 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 ...

, and the most important volcano on the Daisen

volcanic belt A volcanic belt is a large volcanically active region. Other terms are used for smaller areas of activity, such as volcanic fields or volcanic systems. Volcanic belts are found above zones of unusually high temperature () where magma is created ...

, which is a part of the Southwestern Honshu volcanic arc, where the

Philippine Sea Plate The Philippine Sea plate or the Philippine plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of ...

is subducting under the

Amurian Plate The Amur plate (or Amurian plate; also occasionally referred to as the China plate, not to be confused with the Yangtze plate) is a minor tectonic plate in the northern and eastern hemispheres. The Amurian Plate is named after the Amur Rive ...

Outline

Mount Daisen is a

complex volcano A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano or a volcanic complex, is a mixed landform consisting of related volcanic centers and their associated lava flows and pyroclastic rock. They may form due to changes in eruptive habit or ...

, made by repeated volcanic activity over thousands of years. Eruptions in this area started 1.8 million years ago and resulted in ''Old Daisen'' some 500,000 years ago. The Mount Daisen of today, ''New Daisen'', resulted from a second group of eruptions which started 50,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago in the caldera of Old Daisen. 50,000 years ago, this mountain had a

plinian eruption Plinian eruptions or Vesuvian eruptions are volcanic eruptions characterized by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which destroyed the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption was described in a le ...

from which volcanic ash can be found as far away as the Tohoku Region of Japan. Daisen is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan, and also one of the Chūgoku 100 mountains.

History and religion

Mount Daisen, which stands directly on the Sea of Japan, was regarded as one of the most important mountains for Japanese Shugendō religion. According to the '' Izumo Kokudo Fudoki'', completed in 733, it was called ''Ōgami-take'', literally, ''Mountain of the great god''. This and ''Ōgami-yama'' (whence the name of Ōgamiyama Jinja) represent the older, native Japanese name for the mountain, while ''Daisen'' is the Chinese-based ''

go-on are Japanese kanji readings based on the classical pronunciations of Chinese characters of the historically prestigious eastern Jiankang (now Nanjing) dialect. ''Go-on'' are the earliest form of , preceding the readings. Both ''go-on'' and ...

'' reading of 大山, literally, ''great mountain''. Mount Daisen has been called Hōki Fuji and Izumo Fuji, depending on which side of the mountain the viewer is standing on. These names are based on the old

Hōki was a after '' Jingo-keiun'' and before ''Ten'ō''. This period spanned the years from October 770 through January 781. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 770 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The p ...

and

Izumo Izumo (出雲) may refer to: Locations * Izumo Province, an old province of Japan * Izumo, Shimane, a city located in Shimane Prefecture ** Izumo Airport * Izumo-taisha, one of Japan's most ancient and important Shinto shrines Ships * ''Izumo ...

provinces.Paul Hunt, ''Hiking in Japan: An Adventurer's Guide to the Mountain Trails'', pg 73 Halfway up the mountain stands a Buddhist temple, '' Daisen-ji''. This has existed as a centre of worship since the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. It was founded by the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

sect in 718. Climbing the mountain used to be severely prohibited without a selected monk of Daisen-ji, and common people could not access the mountain until the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. The mountain has also been important to the mountain ascetics of the

Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...

sect. Just above the temple is the Ōgamiyama Jinja, literally, ''shrine of the mountain of the great god''.

Route

After the 2000 Tottori earthquake, some of Mount Daisen's peaks are on the verge of collapse. It is prohibited to ascend the mountain's highest peak, the Kengamine (). Climbers are able to access the Misen Peak (). The most popular route is from Daisen-ji to the Misen Peak. It takes three hours to reach the summit.

Gallery

File:Daisen 2016-03-21 (25887648161).jpg, NW side File:Daisen 2014-10-24 (14997796814).jpg, South wall File:Daisen 2016-03-07 (25502160362).jpg, WNW side File:Daisen highest peak.jpg, Kengamine Peak, the highest peak of Mount Daisen Mount Daisen 2015-05-03 (17214768368).jpg, Looking NW File:View of Hiruzen from Daisen Summit.JPG, Looking SSW File:The Famous Scenes of the Sixty States 41 Hoki.jpg,

Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

References

Geographical Survey Institute
* Paul Hunt, ''Hiking in Japan: An Adventurer's Guide to the Mountain Trails'', Tokyo, Kodansha International Ltd., 1988. and C0075

External links