, is a mountain located in

Misasa is a town located in Tōhaku District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is also home to the official treasure of Sanbutsu-ji, the Misasa Onsen, and Okayama Hospital. The name "Misasa" (literally "three mornings") originates from the belief that o ...

Tottori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the least populous prefecture of Japan at 570,569 (2016) and has a geographic area of . Tottori Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to the west, Hirosh ...

. Mount Mitoku has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic 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 surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of . Mount Mitoku was known from ancient times as a place of both religious significance and scenic beauty. The mountain is home to

Sanbutsu-ji is a Buddhist temple in the town of Misasa, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The of Sanbutsu-ji, built in the Heian period is designated a National Treasure of Japan. By tradition Sanbutsu-ji was founded by the Buddhist ascetic and mystic of the l ...

, a historically significant temple designated an Important Treasure of Japan in 1952.

Etymology

The name of Mount Mitoku in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

is formed from two

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

. The first, , means "

three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

" and the second, means "

virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standard ...

". therefore refers to the three primary virtues of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, ...

renunciation Renunciation (or renouncing) is the act of rejecting something, especially if it is something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed. In religion, renunciation often indicates an abandonment of pursuit of material comforts, in t ...

, and

judgement Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...

. Mount Mitoku was historically also written as in Japanese, , meaning three and meaning beautiful, but the pronunciation remained the same.

Geography

Mount Mitoku was formed from a volcanic eruption approximately 15 million years ago in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

period. The layers of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) 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 cools and solidifies undergro ...

and other conglomerates at the base of the mountain were transformed by a volcano into large

pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...

deposits. Mount Mitoku eroded over time by wind and rain. Erosion on the southern side of the mountain created steep cliffs of to . Two rivers emerge from the slopes of Mount Mitoku: the Kotori River, which forms a deep valley, and one small unnamed river. The steep slopes of Mount Mitoku have created three waterfalls: namely, the Fudō, the Mahebi, and the Ryūtokuin. As the waterfalls are located deep in the

primeval forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

of Mount Mitoku, they are inaccessible to hikers.

Flora

Mount Dōgo features outstanding examples of numerous trees, including the: *''Shiba''

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

Oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

Kousa Dogwood Kousa may refer to: * Kousa dogwood (''Cornus kousa'') * ''kousa'' or ''kōsa'', known as Asian Dust * Kōsa (also known as Honganji Kennyo), the leader of Ishiyama Hongan-ji and Ikkō-Ikki rebels. * Kousa or kusa, a type of squash (fruit) '' ...

Transportation

Mount Dōgo can be accessed by bus from the

Kurayoshi Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Kurayoshi Station is served by the San'in Main Line, and is located 270.1 kilome ...

on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

Sanin Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

. The mountain can be accessed from the bus stop at the entrance at Sanbutsu-ji, 40 minutes from Kurayoshi Station. The ascent to Sanbuts-ji is very steep, and entrance to buildings in the temple complex are a 40 to 50 minute hike from the foot of the mountain.三徳山三佛寺・投入堂

Surrounding area

Mount Mitoku is 4.5 miles from the

Misasa Onsen is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Tōhaku District, Tottori, Tōhaku District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It is also home to the official treasure of Sanbutsu-ji, the Misasa Onsen, and Okayama Hospital. The name "Misasa" (literally "t ...

. Areas to the east and south of Mount Mitoku are mountainous, deeply forested, and sparsely populated.

References

External links

国宝・重要文化財（建造物）Mt MITOKU
Visit Japan channel {{Authority control Mountains of Tottori Prefecture Tourist attractions in Tottori Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty Historic Sites of Japan