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 ...

in Tottori Prefecture, 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, 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.

Outline

Mount Daisen is a complex volcano, 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 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'' 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 and 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 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 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

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