is a mountain on the border of Shisō,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, and Mimasaka,

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

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 ...

. It is the highest mountain in Okayama Prefecture and the third highest mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture, after

Mount Hyōno is a mountain on the border of Yabu, Hyōgo Prefecture, and Wakasa, Tottori Prefecture, in Japan. It is the highest mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture. This mountain is one of the 200 famous mountains in Japan. Other names of this mountain are Suga ...

and

Mount Mimuro is a mountain on the border of Shisō, Hyōgo Prefecture, and Wakasa, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The height is {{Convert, 1358.0, m, ft, 0, abbr=on, and this mountains is the second highest mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture after Mount Hyōno. O ...

. In Hyōgo Prefecture this mountain is also known as Itabami-san and in

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 ...

it is also known as Ushiro-no-sen.

Outline

Mount Ushiro is a fault-block mountain typical of the

Chūgoku Mountains is a mountain range in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. It runs in an east–west direction and stretches approximately from Hyōgo Prefecture in the east to the coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The range also reaches under the Pacific Ocean ...

. This mountain belongs to the

Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park in Hyōgo Prefecture, Tottori Prefecture, and Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on 10 April 1969 and has an area of . Overview Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Kokutei Kōen comprises three areas of the Chūgoku Mo ...

. It is one of Hyōgo 50 mountains as well as one of Kinki 100 mountains and the Chūgoku 100 mountains.

Religion and history

Mount Ushiro is a center of

Shugendō is a highly syncretic religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local fol ...

in this region, and called Nishi-Omine, literally, ''West Omine''. ''Omine'' is the name of the most important mountain for Shugendō in Japan. According to a local narration in this area{fact}, this mountain was developed as a training area by

En no Gyōja ( b. 634, in Katsuragi (modern Nara Prefecture); d. c. 700–707) was a Japanese ascetic and mystic, traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendō, the path of ascetic training practiced by the ''gyōja'' or ''yamabushi''. He was banish ...

, the founder of Shugendō in the 7th century, for Shugensha, practitioners of Shigendō. However, Dosen-ji, which is the center for the Shugendō on this mountain, was established in the 13th century, so it would be natural to understand Shugendō on this mountain also started about that time. Mount Ushiro is one of the mountains which still have some areas which women are prohibited to enter so as to not to bother the training of Shugensha.

Access

* Matsunoki-Bashi Bus Stop of

Shinki Bus Shinki Bus Co., Ltd is a transport company based in Himeji, Japan, operating local bus services in Hyogo prefecture and other services mainly related to transport and tourism. History The company was founded on 10 March 1927 under the name of Sh ...

* Omarabad Stop of

References

Ministry of Environment of Japan

Official Home Page of the Geographical Survey Institute in Japan

Mimasaka Tourism Navigation

‘Shinban Furusato Hyōgo 50 San’, Hyōgo-ken Sangaku Renmei
Ushiroyama Ushiroyama Shugendō