is located in the western portion of

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

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 ...

. Because the mountain has three peaks, it is also called Hōō Sanzan (鳳凰三山). It is in

Minami Alps National Park is a national park in the Akaishi Mountains, Chūbu region, Honshū, Japan. The Minami Alps National Park was established on June 1, 1964. It extends along the border of Shizuoka, Yamanashi and Nagano Prefectures for a length of , and a maxim ...

and is one of the

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

Outline

Mount Hōō has three peaks: Mount Hōō is separated from most of the other mountains in the Akaishi range, giving a wider view of the surrounding mountains. Also, most mountains in the range have a reddish-brown color ("Akaishi" means "red stone" in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

), but Mount Hōō and

Mount Kaikoma is a mountain of the Akaishi Mountains, located on the border of Hokuto, Yamanashi, Hokuto in Yamanashi Prefecture, and Ina, Nagano, Ina in Nagano Prefecture, in the Chūbu region of Japan. Geography The peak is in elevation.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 ...

mountains.

History

Metal ore was found in the mountain during 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 ...

and, by 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 ...

, the mountain was exploited for its metals and forest products. * In 1904,

Walter Weston Walter Weston (25 December 1861 – 27 March 1940) was an English clergyman and Anglican missionary who helped popularise recreational mountaineering in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Background and early life Weston was born 25 Dece ...

became the first to climb the

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

on top of Jizōdake. * On June 1, 1964, this area was specified to the Minami Alps National Park. * In 1990, Sumie Tanaka ( 田中澄江 ''Tanaka Sumie'') completed ''New Flowers of the 100 Mountains'', which featured many of the alpine plants on Mount Hōō.''New Flowers of the 100 Mountains''(新・花の百名山), Bunsyunbunko, in 1995 by Sumie Tanaka,

Geography

Nearby mountains

Mount Hōō is on the subridge (from Mount Komatsu) of the main ridge line in the northern part of the

Akaishi Mountains The are a mountain range in central Honshū, Japan, bordering Nagano Prefecture, Nagano, Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka prefectures. They are also called the , as they join with the Hida Mountains ("Northern Al ...

Rivers

The mountain is the source of the following

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s, each of which flows to the

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

. * Noro River (a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''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 into which they ...

of the

Fuji River The is a river in Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures of central Japan. It is long and has a drainage basin, watershed of . With the Mogami River and the Kuma River (Japan), Kuma River, it is regarded as one of the three mos ...

) * Ōtake River, Kotake River (tributaries of the

Tenryū River The is a river in central Honshū, Japan. With a length of , it is Japan's ninth longest river. Its source is Lake Suwa in the Kiso Mountains near Okaya in Nagano Prefecture. It then flows through Aichi Prefecture and western Shizuoka Prefec ...

)

Gallery

File:Mount_Houousan_from_Komatsumine_2001-1-4.jpg, Mount Hōō and

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of . It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), a ...

from Mount Komatsu at the sunrise File:Houousan_from_kaikomagatake_50_1996_9_15.jpg, Mount Hōō and Mount Fuji from

Mount Kaikoma is a mountain of the Akaishi Mountains, located on the border of Hokuto, Yamanashi, Hokuto in Yamanashi Prefecture, and Ina, Nagano, Ina in Nagano Prefecture, in the Chūbu region of Japan. Geography The peak is in elevation.100 Famous Japanese Mountains is a book written in 1964 by Mountaineering, mountaineer and author Kyūya Fukada.Hyakumeizan, Hiking Japan ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mount Hoo Akaishi Mountains Japan Alps Hoo, Mount