is the

sacred mountain Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many rel ...

Itsukushima is an island in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is popularly known as , which in Japanese means "Shrine Island". The island is one of Hayashi Gahō's Three Views of Japan specified in ...

Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The name derives from a market traditionally held on the 20th of each month with ''hatsuka'' (廿日) meaning "20th day" and ''ichi'' (市) translating to "market". The market continues to this day ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and is the highest mountain on the island at 535 m; it is situated within the

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

area of

Itsukushima Shrine is a Shinto jinja (shrine), shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima, Hiroshima, Miyajima), best known for its "floating" ''torii'' gate.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005)"''Itsukushima-jinja''"in ''Japa ...

. The sea around the island (

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...

) and all of the island are within

Setonaikai National Park is a Japanese national park, comprising areas of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, and of ten bordering prefectures. Designated a national park in 1934, it has since been expanded several times. It contains about 3,000 islands, known as the Setouchi Isl ...

. The north side of the mountain is covered by

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 ...

which is protected by Hiroshima prefecture. The foot of the mountain has . According to the website of Miyajima Tourist Association, Mount Misen was visited by

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon sec ...

in the year 806, the 1st year of the Daidō era. Since ancient times, the mountain has been an important destination for religious visitors.

Seven Wonders of the Misen

The Seven Wonders of Misen, which come from ancient tales, are as follows: Kiezu no Hi

Kiezu-no-hi (The eternal flame) This is the holy fire said to have been started by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi, who founded the Daishoin Temple in 806. It still burns today and the holy water boiled by this fire is used to treat diseases. This fire was used as the pilot light for the 'Flame of Peace' in

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a memorial park in the center of Hiroshima, Japan. It is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear attack at the end of World War II, and to the memorie ...

. Shakujo-no-ume (Plum tree of Tin Stick) The Plum tree of Tin Stick is said to be Kobo-Daishi's

crosier A crosier or crozier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholi ...

, which took root where he was leaning on it and grew into a

plum tree A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...

. Mandara-iwa Behind Misenhondo Hall is a gigantic

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

face on which handwritten letters,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

characters and illustrations of Kobo Daishi are engraved. It is currently closed to visitors. Kanman-iwa (Ebb-and-flow rock) This rock sits about 500 meters above sea level, but somehow saltwater rises and subsides inside its hollow according to the ebb and flow of the tide. Hyoshigi-no oto (Sound of wooden clappers) Here you can hear the 'clink, clink' sound of beating wooden clappers coming from nowhere in the middle of the night. Legend has it that the source of the noise is a

tengu are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion (Shinto). They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey and a ...

, a long-nosed

goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on t ...

who lives inside in Mount Misen. People are warned to stay indoors when they hear the noise or risk being cursed. Shigure-zakura (showered cherry blossom) This is a

cherry tree A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

that was always moist with dew, as if there has been a passing shower, even on a dry and sunny day. Unfortunately the tree has since been cut down and can't be seen. Ryuoto No Sugi (Sea-fire Japan Cedar) This is a great cedar tree which could be seen as mysterious lights from the sea off the coast of Miyajima. It was said the lights were clearer on the eve of a

lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are moon cycles, based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year as a celebration is observed by numerous cultures. It is also named " Chinese New Year" becau ...

. The cedar is now dead and only the stump remains.

Mount Misen Primeval Forest

The Mount Misen Primeval Forest covers the north side of the mountain. Various

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

trees grow at elevations above 400 m, including

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...

and

Japanese hemlock Japanese hemlock may refer to: * '' Tsuga diversifolia'', or northern Japanese hemlock * ''Tsuga sieboldii ''Tsuga sieboldii'', also called the southern Japanese hemlock, or in Japanese, simply tsuga (栂), is a conifer native to the Japanese ...

, in addition to

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

broad-leaf trees such as

Quercus salicina ''Quercus salicina'' is an oak species found in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It is placed in subgenus ''Cerris'', section ''Cyclobalanopsis''. The larvae of the Japanese oakblue ('' Arhopala japonica''), of '' Acrocercops vallata'' and '' Mar ...

. Halfway to the foot of the mountain other species dominate, mainly

Japanese red pine ''Pinus densiflora'', also called the Japanese red pine, the Japanese pine, or Korean red pine, is a species of pine tree native to East Asia. Distribution and habitat ''P. densiflora'' has a home range that includes Japan, the Korean Peninsula, ...

in addition to

Lithocarpus glaber ''Lithocarpus glaber'', the Japanese oak, is a tree species in the genus '' Lithocarpus'' found in Japan, China and Taiwan. Mitami Shrine, a Shinto shrine in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, is famous locally for its comparatively large populati ...

, Rapanaea neriifolia, and Symplocos glauca. The forest is protected and designated a

Natural Monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, nat ...

by the government of Japan. It is also a part of the main area of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of

, while the rest of Mount Misen is inside the buffer zone.

References

{{Reflist , refs= {{cite web, url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BC%A5%E5%B1%B1-138721 , title=弥山(みせん)とは - コトバンク , publisher=kotobank , language=ja , access-date=December 30, 2017

External links

UNESCO World Heritage Site description
- Ministry of the Environment (in Japanese)
Miyajima Ropeway
(in Japanese) Misen (Miyajima) Sacred mountains of Japan

Seven Wonders of the Misen

Mount Misen Primeval Forest

See also

References

External links