, commonly referred to as Tateyama, is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

located in the southeastern area of

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

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 n ...

. It is one of the tallest mountains in the

Hida Mountains The , or , is a Japanese mountain range which stretches through Nagano, Toyama and Gifu prefectures. A small portion of the mountains also reach into Niigata Prefecture. William Gowland coined the phrase "Japanese Alps" during his time in Japa ...

at . It is one of Japan's along with

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest ...

and

Mount Haku , or Mount Hakusan (commonly referred to as simply Hakusan), is a dormant stratovolcano in Japan. It is located on the borders of Gifu and Ishikawa, on the island of Honshu. Mount Haku is thought to have first been active 300,000 to 400,000 yea ...

. Tateyama consists of three peaks: Ōnanjiyama (大汝山, 3,015 m), Oyama (雄山, 3,003 m), and Fuji-no-Oritateyama, (富士ノ折立, 2,999 m) which run along a ridge (see photo). Tateyama is the tallest mountain in the Tateyama Mountain Range (立山連峰, Tateyama-renpō). It was first climbed by Saeki no Ariyori during Japan's

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after ...

. The area was made the

Chūbu-Sangaku National Park is a national park in the Chūbu region of Japan. It was established around the Hida Mountains and encompasses parts of Nagano, Gifu, Toyama and Niigata prefectures. It was designated a national park on December 4, 1934, along with Daisetsuz ...

on 4 December 1934.

Name

The

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

name for the mountain is 立山 (Tateyama), which is called ''Tateyama'' in Japanese, which means "standing (立) or outstanding (顕)" and "mountain (山)," respectively. The pronunciation of ''Tate'' is two syllables similar to ''"tah-teh"'' rather than rhyming with ''"gate."'' The Toyama Prefectural Government uses the name Mount Tateyama as an official translation of the Japanese mountain.

Geology

The mountain is composed primarily 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 un ...

and

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

. However, located along the ridge and plateau about west of the summit is a small

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained ( aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyo ...

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 peri ...

. This volcano has an elevation of and has had minor historical

eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...

s, the latest in 1961.

Geography

Location

Tateyama is located in southeastern Toyama Prefecture. At the base of the mountain is the town of Tateyama which is accessible by train from the prefecture's capital city, Toyama.

Public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

takes climbers and tourists as far as the Murodo Plateau Station at an elevation of , from where individuals may climb to the peak on foot. These are the only

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

s identified in Japan so far.

Nearby mountains

Mount Tate and Mount Tsurugi from Mount Kashimayari 2003-11-01

Rivers

The mountain is the source of the following two

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

s, each of which flows to the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

. * Hayatsuki River * Tsurugisawa,

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drain ...

of the Kurobe River

Scenery of Tateyama

Mount Tate from Higashi Ichinokoshi 1995-08-20.jpg, Tateyama from Higashi-Ichinokoshi Mount Tate from Mount Betsu 1995-08-20.jpg, Tateyama from Mount Bessan Tateyama from jiigatake 20 2001 11 20.jpg, Tateyama and Mount Tsurugi from Mount Jii Mount Tate and Mount Tsurugi from Mount Asahi 2000-07-30.jpg, Tateyama and Mount Tsurugi from Mount Asahi

References

External links

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route official website