, is a mountain on the border between the cities of Chikushino and Dazaifu in

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of meters. It 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 reli ...

and one of the three major centers for Shugendō. It was designated a National Historic Site in 2013. The mountain is also called and

Overview

Mount Hōman is located in the center of the former Mikasa District of Chikuzen Province, southeast of Fukuoka city, northeast of Dazaifu city, and northeast of Chikushino city. The mountain is entirely made of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, 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 coo ...

. A

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

, the Kamado Shrine, is located on a gigantic rock at the summit. The view from the top of the mountain is outstanding, and from the west are the mountains of the Sefuri Mountains,

Hakata Bay is a bay in the northwestern part of Fukuoka city, on the Japanese island of Kyūshū. It faces the Tsushima Strait, and features beaches and a port, though parts of the bay have been reclaimed in the expansion of the city of Fukuoka. The ba ...

, Genkai Sea,

Mount Kujū , located on the border of Kokonoe and Taketa in Ōita Prefecture, Japan, is a stratovolcano in Kyushu Island, Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. It is part of the Aso-Kujū National Park. S ...

, the three plains of Fukuoka, Chikugo, and

Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

, and Mount Unzen in the distance over the

Ariake Sea The is a body of salt water surrounded by Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto Prefectures, all of which lie on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. It is the largest bay in Kyūshū. Its deepest point is only about 50 meters (165 ft) deep, and ext ...

, and the road along the ridge that leads to Mount Butcho and Mount Sankori is a popular hiking course. The mountain has a history closely related to Dazaifu since ancient times and is mention in the ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'' as the guardian of the land of Tsukushi. Because of the syncretization of Shinto and Buddhism, the deity enshrined on this mountain was named "Hōman Daibodhisattva", and as the mountain was located to the "unlucky" northeast direction from the government offices at Dazaifu, it functioned similar to

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by ...

Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...

. The temple buildings no longer exists at the 8th station, but the ruins of the middle shrine do exist. In 803, Saichō carved a statue of

Yakushi Nyorai Bhaiṣajyaguru (, zh, t= , , , , ), or ''Bhaishajyaguru'', formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabha-rāja ("Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"; zh, t=藥師琉璃光(王)如來, , , ), is the Buddha of healing and medicine i ...

of the Kamadozan-ji in order to pray for safety during his crossing to

Tang China The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

. In 840, Kamado Shrine was given the court rank of Junior Fifth Rank per the '' Shoku Nihon Koki'', and was listed as a ''Myōjin Taisha'' in the '' Engishiki''. The shrine and temple became subsidiaries of

Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana ...

in the mid

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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, and under the practices of Shugendō, corresponded to the Diamond Realm, whereas Mount Hiko corresponded to the Womb Realm in the Mandala of the Two Realms. The mountain was fortified in the

Nanboku-chō period The , also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, was a period in Japanese history between 1336-1392 CE, during the formative years of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi (Ashikaga) shogunate. Ideologically, the two courts fought for 50 ...

, and the temple razed by the forces of Ōtomo Sōrin in the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. It was gradually rebuilt on a smaller scale in the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, but was reduced to a small shrine after the early

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

'' Haibutsu kishaku'' movement. Archaeological excavations and topographical surveys have been conducted since in 2005, with an aim of preserving any ruins which have been endangered by heavy rains in recent years. Numerous ritual objects and other artifacts, including Sancai pottery and coins from the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 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 capita ...

as well as the foundation stones for structures from the Heian through

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

have been found.

Gal, ery

竈門神社（下宮）.jpg, Kamado Shrine（lower shrine）一の鳥居.jpg, Ichi-no-torii 宝満山正面登山道からの大野城址と福岡市内.jpg, Ono Castle ruins and Fukuoka city from the front mountain trail of Mt. Homan 百段ガンギ.jpg, Hyakudan Gangi 宝満山山頂の拝礼岩.jpg, Summit 宝満山山頂の竈門神社上宮.jpg, Kamado Shrine（upper shrine）宝満山からの英彦山（左最奥）と古処山（左奥）.jpg, Mt. Hiko (farthest left) and Mt. Kosho from Mt. Homan

References

External links

Dazaifu city home pageFukuoka Prefecture Tourism WebChikushino City home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Homan, Mount Homan History of Fukuoka Prefecture Dazaifu, Fukuoka Chikushino, Fukuoka Historic Sites of Japan Sacred mountains of Japan

Overview

Gal, ery

See also

References

External links