is a

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

in the

Nikkō National Park is a national park in the Kantō region, on the main island of Honshū in Japan. The park spreads over three prefectures: Tochigi Prefecture, Tochigi, Gunma Prefecture, Gunma and Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima, and was established in 1934. Hi ...

Tochigi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 Square kilometre, km2 (2,474 Square mile, sq mi). Tochigi ...

, in central

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

, the main island of

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 ...

. The mountain is high. A prominent landmark, it can be seen on clear days from as far as Saitama, a city away. Alongside Mount Nikkō-Shirane, Mount Nantai is one of the newest volcanic edifices in the National Park. Scientific studies of the volcano's geological structure began in 1957 and have established that it was formed roughly 23,000 years ago and that its last eruption was 7000 years ago. The volcano was classified as active by the

Japan Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

in June of 2017. Since its first known ascent by

Buddhist 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 ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

Shōdō Shōnin in the

8th century AD The 8th century is the period from 701 ( DCCI) through 800 ( DCCC) in accordance with the Julian Calendar. The coast of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula quickly came under Islamic Arab domination. The westward expansion of the Umayyad E ...

, Mount Nantai has become a sacred mountain and a site of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

in Buddhism and

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

. As such, it is currently maintained by

Futarasan jinja is a Shinto shrine in the city of Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It is also known as Nikkō Futarasan Shrine, to distinguish it from the Utsunomiya Futarayama Jinja, which shares the same ''kanji'' in its name. both shrines also claim the ti ...

, a Shinto shrine whose constitutes Mount Nantai. With

Tōshō-gū is any Shinto shrine in which Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) is enshrined. Ieyasu was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), which is the third and last of the shogunal governments in Japanese history. He was deified with the name , ...

and

Rinnō-ji is a Tendai Buddhist temple in the city of Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. History The site was established in 766 by the Buddhist monk Shōdō Shōnin (735–817). Due to its geographic isolation, deep in the mountains of Japan, the ...

, the site forms the

Shrines and Temples of Nikkō The UNESCO World Heritage Site Shrines and Temples of Nikkō encompasses 103 buildings or structures and the natural setting around them. It is located in Nikkō, Tochigi, Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The buildings belong to two Shinto shrine ...

, a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site 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 ...

Archaeological excavations In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

conducted here from the 19th to 20th centuries have unearthed many artifacts, dating from the end of the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

in the 8th century AD to the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

from the 17th to 19th centuries. A few of these have been declared Important Cultural Properties by the Japanese

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

. Mount Nantai is listed among the

100 Famous Japanese Mountains is a book written in 1964 by mountaineer and author Kyūya Fukada.Hyakumeizan, Hiking Japan!
. Japan ...

as written by

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

and author

Kyūya Fukada was a Japanese writer and mountaineer active during the Shōwa period in Japan. Early life Kyūya was born in what is now Kaga city, Ishikawa prefecture. He attended the Fujishima High School, followed by the preparatory school for the Tokyo I ...

Toponymy

Literally, the 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 ...

characters that make up the name, 男 and 体, mean "man" and "body" respectively, and so together the combined word 男体 means "male body". Mount Nantai is said to have been the father in a family of mountain deities in Shinto, of which the neighboring Mount Nyohō is the mother and Mount Tarō the eldest son.

Trekking

The mountain is popular with hikers, and the trail to the summit starts through a gate at

Futarasan Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the city of Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It is also known as Nikkō Futarasan Shrine, to distinguish it from the Utsunomiya Futarayama Jinja, which shares the same ''kanji'' in its name. both shrines also claim the ...

's . The gate is open between 5 May and 25 October. Mount Nantai is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan.

Volcanic activity

In September 2008, the

was asked to reclassify Mount Nantai as "active" based upon work by Yasuo Ishizaki and colleagues of

Toyama University The is a Japanese national university in Toyama Prefecture established in 1949. The University of Toyama has three campuses, namely the Gofuku, Sugitani, and Takaoka campuses. The University of Toyama, Sugitani campus is the home to Institute ...

showing evidence of an eruption approximately 7000 years ago. Nantai Volcano & Lake Chuzenji Relief Map, SRTM-1

Mount Nantai as a sacred mountain

Archaeologists affirm that during the

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

the most common (a ''

yorishiro A in Shinto terminology is an object capable of attracting spirits called , thus giving them a physical space to occupy during religious ceremonies. are used during ceremonies to call the for worship. The word itself literally means "approach ...

'' housing a ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'') in the earliest

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

s was a nearby mountain peak supplying with its streams water, and therefore life, to the plains below where people lived. Mount Nantai constitutes

's ''go-shintai'', and the shrine is an important example of this ancient type of mountain cult. Significantly, the name itself means "man's body". The mountain not only provides water to the rice paddies below, but has the shape of the

phallic A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically—or, more precisely ...

stone rods found in pre-agricultural Jōmon sites.

References

External links