| Mount Daisen | |
|---|---|
| 大山 | |
 Mount Daisen from the West | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,729 m (5,673 ft)[1] |
| Prominence | 1,634 m (5,361 ft)[1] |
| Listing | Ultra, Ribu List of mountains and hills of Japan by height |
| Coordinates | 35°22′16″N133°32′47″E / 35.37111°N 133.54639°E /35.37111; 133.54639 |
| Naming | |
| English translation | Big Mountain |
| Language of name | Japanese |
| Pronunciation | Japanese:[daiseɴ] |
| Geography | |
  Mount Daisen Japan | |
| Location | Tottori Prefecture, Japan |
| Parent range | Chūgoku Mountains |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | Complex volcano |
| Last eruption | Estimated 17,000-18,000 years ago |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Hiking |
Mount Daisen (大山,Daisen) is a dormantstratovolcano inTottori Prefecture, Japan. It has anelevation of 1,729 m (5,673 ft). This mountain is the highest in theChūgoku region, and the most important volcano on the Daisenvolcanic belt, which is a part of the Southwestern Honshu volcanic arc, where thePhilippine Sea Plate is subducting under theAmurian Plate.[citation needed]
Mount Daisen is acomplex volcano, made by repeated volcanic activity over thousands of years. Eruptions in this area started 1.8 million years ago and resulted inOld Daisen some 500,000 years ago[citation needed]. 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 aplinian eruption from which volcanic ash can be found as far away as theTohoku Region of Japan. Daisen is one ofthe 100 famous mountains in Japan, and also one of theChūgoku 100 mountains.
Mount Daisen, which stands directly on the Sea of Japan, was regarded as one of the most important mountains for JapaneseShugendō religion. According to theIzumo Kokudo Fudoki, completed in 733, it was calledŌgami-take, literally,Mountain of the great god. This andŌgami-yama (whence the name ofŌgamiyama Jinja) represent the older,native Japanese name for the mountain, whileDaisen is the Chinese-basedgo-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 oldHōki andIzumo provinces.[2]
Halfway up the mountain stands a Buddhist temple,Daisen-ji. This has existed as a centre of worship since theHeian period. It was founded by theTendai sect in 718.[2]
Climbing the mountain used to be severely prohibited without a selected monk of Daisen-ji, and common people could not access the mountain until theEdo period.
The mountain has also been important to the mountain ascetics of theShugendō sect. Just above the temple is theŌgamiyama Jinja, literally,shrine of the mountain of the great god.[2]
After the2000 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 (1,729 metres (5,673 ft)). Climbers are able to access the Misen Peak (1,709.4 metres (5,608 ft)).[3] The most popular route is from Daisen-ji to the Misen Peak. It takes three hours to reach the summit.
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| Hokkaidō | |||||||||
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| Tōhoku region Jōshinetsu region | |||||||||
| Kantō region | |||||||||
| Chūbu region |
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| Western Japan | |||||||||
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