is an active volcano located on the southern border of Akita and Yamagata in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku ret ...

of Japan, and is tall. Because of its (roughly) symmetrical shape and massive size, it is also variously known as , or depending on the location of the viewer. In addition to being one of the 100 Famous Landscapes of Japan, it is also included as one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan, and famous 100 Geographical Features of Japan. It is surrounded by Chōkai Quasi-National Park. It is also a National Historic Site of Japan,Chōkai＆Tobishima Geopark
and is regarded as a

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 ...

by followers of the ''

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 fo ...

'' branch of

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 ''Shintoist ...

and is popular with hikers.

Outline

Mount Chōkai is a complex

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 p ...

made of two old and new newer volcanoes, composed primarily of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

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 predomina ...

. Mount Chōkai is shared by two municipalities in Akita Prefecture and four municipalities Yamagata Prefecture; however, its peak is located in Yuza, on the Yamagata side of the border. It is therefore the highest peak in Yamagata, and the second highest in the Tōhoku region after Mt. Hiuchigatake (altitude 2,356 m). The highest elevation of Mount Chōkai within Akita Prefecture has an altitude of 1,775 meters, and thus the mountain is also the highest in Akita Prefecture. From the summit, it is possible to see the Shirakami Mountains and

Mount Iwaki is a stratovolcano located in western Aomori Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan. It is also referred to as and less frequently, due to its similar shape to Mount Fuji. With a summit elevation of and a prominence of it is the highest mountain in A ...

to the north,

Sado Island is a city located on in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Since 2004, the city has comprised the entire island, although not all of its total area is urbanized. Sado is the sixth largest island of Japan in area following the four main islands and O ...

to the south and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

to the east. On the south side of the mountain is “Kokoro Yukikei,” where snow remains in the shape of 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 subse ...

'' for “heart” in even in summer, and portions of the summit have perennial snow, and geological evidence of glaciation in the recent past. Indigenous species of Mount Chōkai include the butterfly thistle and butterfly fish.

Eruptions

Mount Chōkai is a very active mountain. Known major eruptions occurred: *466 B.C. Causes massive collapse of mountain peak (based on dendrochronology) *810 AD Records of eruption continue to 824. *840 AD Eruption. *871 AD Eruption and lava flow with Volcanic explosion index: VEI 2 *939 AD Eruption *1560 AD Eruption *1659-1663 AD Eruptions *1740-1741 AD Eruption *1800-1801 AD Steam explosion, lava flow, formation of a new

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruption ...

: Eight people killed 821 Eruption recorded. *1834 AD Eruption *1971 AD Eruption *1974 AD Steam explosion, small mud flow; Volcanic Explosion Index: VEI 1

History

Mount Chōkai has been the object of

mountain worship Mountain worship (sangaku shinko, ) is a faith that regards mountains as sacred and objects of worship. Description Mountain worship is a form of Nature worship that seems to have evolved from the reverence that ethnic groups closely associate ...

since ancient times. From the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

, it gradually became a training ground for Shugendō, as an avatar of

Yakushi Nyorai Bhaiṣajyaguru ( sa, भैषज्यगुरु, zh, t= , ja, 薬師仏, ko, 약사불, bo, སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླ), or ''Bhaishajyaguru'', formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja ("Medicine Master ...

. From the south was a pilgrimage path to the summit. In the middle of 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 character ...

the mountain drew many pilgrims and had 33 chapels at its base., with additional routes to its summit opened in the north. There is also a tradition that the island of Tobishima in the Sea of Japan was originally a part of the summit of Mount Chokai. Three ships have been named after Mount Chōkai: ''Chōkai'', an early steam gunboat, and the cruiser (sunk in 1944), which were both in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

, and the JDS ''Chōkai'', a Kongō class guided missile destroyer currently in service in the

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

. File:Mount Chokai Relief Map, SRTM-1.jpg, Chōkai volcano Ridge of the Mt. Chokai.jpg, Ridge of the Mt. Chokai Lake Chokai, 19 Oct. 2013.jpg, Lake Chokai Mount Chokai (19686944565).jpg, Lava dome on the summit

References

External links

Chokaisan
- Japan Meteorological Agency * - Japan Meteorological Agency
Chokaisan
- Smithsonian Institution: Global Volcanism Program

*https://www.thehiddenjapan.com/mtchokai - English Information {{DEFAULTSORT:Chokai Mountains of Akita Prefecture Mountains of Yamagata Prefecture Volcanoes of Akita Prefecture Volcanoes of Yamagata Prefecture Volcanoes of Honshū Stratovolcanoes of Japan Active volcanoes Historic Sites of Japan Two-thousanders of Asia Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Holocene stratovolcanoes

Outline

Eruptions

History

See also

References

External links