is a mountain within the

Ōu Mountains The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. It is the longest range in Japan and stretches south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō region. T ...

on the border of

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

and

Yamagata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It has a population of 1,005,926 (1 February 2025) and an area of 9,325 Square kilometre, km2 (3,600 Square mile, sq mi). Its neighbours are Akita Prefectu ...

in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northern Japan. It is listed as one of the "200 famous mountains of Japan" and has a height of . The mountain is also known as when viewed from Yamagata prefecture.

Name

Several mountains around Japan are called "Funagata" due to their resemblance to the hull of a boat when viewed from certain angles. The name of "Mount Goshō" comes from a local legend that exiled

Emperor Juntoku (22 October 1197 – 7 October 1242) was the 84th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1210 through 1221, a part of Japan's Kamakura Period. Genealogy Before his ascension to the C ...

escaped from his prison on

Sado island is an island located in the eastern part of the Sea of Japan, under the jurisdiction of Sado City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, with a coastline of . In October 2017, Sado Island had a population of 55,212 people. Sado Island covers an area of ...

and lived in obscurity at the base of this mountain. Yet another legend states that the name comes from the five peaks of the mountain. This has also led to the term , which is used in the name of

Funagata Renpō Prefectural Natural Park is a prefectural natural park surrounding Mount Funagata in western Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. First designated for protection in 1962, the park spans the municipalities of Kami, Sendai, Shikama, and Taiwa. Wildlife includes the Japanese serow ...

, although all five peaks are part of the same

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 ...

. The other peaks that compose the Funagata volcano include Mount Ushiroshirahige (後白髪山), Mount Mitsumine (三峰山), and Mount Izumigatake (泉ヶ岳). Izumigatake is the most famous of these mountains, with two

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

s and several camping areas. Izumigatake is also the namesake of Izumi-ku, Sendai. Mount Kurohana (黒鼻山) was traditionally considered part of Mount Funagata; however, recent research has revealed that Mount Kurohana should be considered a separate volcano.

Geology

Mount Funagata is an active

formed from the end of the

Tertiary period The Tertiary ( ) is an obsolete Period (geology), geologic period spanning 66 million to 2.6 or 1.8 million years ago. The period began with the extinction of the non-bird, avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at t ...

to the beginning of the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

when the Ōu Mountains were raised from the sea. Mount Izumigatake is the oldest peak, created around 1.2 million years ago. The current main mountain body was completed by repeated volcanic activity from 600,000 to 850,000 years ago. Mount Funagata is made up of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

, which is easily distinguished from the

pigeonite Pigeonite is a mineral in the clinopyroxene subgroup of the pyroxene group. It has a general formula of . The calcium cation fraction can vary from 5% to 25%, with iron and magnesium making up the rest of the cations. Pigeonite crystallizes in ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

that erupted from Mout Kurohana. The

crater A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...

that produced Mount Izumigatake is located on a ridge between Izumigatake and Kita-izumigatake (North Izumigatake).

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * * * {{cite gvp, name=Funagata, vn=283876, access-date=2021-06-25 Funagata Funagata Funagata Funagata Subduction volcanoes Taiwa, Miyagi Kami, Miyagi Geography of Sendai Pleistocene stratovolcanoes