View from the mountain trail is a mountain on the border of Sōma and the former town of Ryōzen, in

Date Date or dates may refer to: * Date, the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') * Jujube, also known as red date or Chinese date, the fruit of ''Ziziphus jujuba'' Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activi ...

, Fukushima. It is in height. Along the hiking trail are the sites of what were Ryōzen Temple and Ryōzen Castle. The mountain is listed as one of the 100 Landscapes of Japan in a contest sponsored by the

Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun The (lit. ''Tokyo Daily News'') was a newspaper printed in Tokyo, 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 ...

and

Osaka Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a bilin ...

. It is also a national Place of Scenic Beauty as determined by the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The age ...

in Japan and is noted for its autumn foliage and a National Historic Site of Japan.

The mountain

Mount Ryōzen is part of the

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, 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 planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

volcanic plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus. Lava plateau Lava plateaus are formed by highly fluid basaltic lava during numerous successive eruptions thro ...

known as the Abukuma Highlands in northern Fukushima. It was 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 was once known as a center for the ''

Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist 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 prim ...

'' mountain religion.

History

Ryōzen Temple

In the first year of the Jōgan Era (859),

Ennin , better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi (), was a priest of the Tendai school of Buddhism in Japan, and its third . Ennin was instrumental in expanding the Tendai Order's influence, and bringing back crucial training and ...

, a Buddhist monk of the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just ''Hokkeshū''), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by t ...

sect founded the temple Ryōzen-ji (not to be confused with Ryōzen Shrine). The name Ryōzen was adapted from that of Mount Ryojusen (or Gridhakuta) in India. The temple was burnt down in the wars of 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 ...

, but the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date fam ...

restored the temple during the late

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 restored again in the early days of 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 ...

Ryōzen Castle

Acting in support of the

Southern Court The were a set of four emperors ( Emperor Go-Daigo and his line) whose claims to sovereignty during the Nanboku-chō period spanning from 1336 through 1392 were usurped by the Northern Court. This period ended with the Southern Court definitivel ...

Kitabatake Akiie was a Japanese court noble, and an important supporter of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō Wars. He also held the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North, and Governor of Mutsu Province. His father was Imperial ad ...

fortified the temple of Ryōzen-ji and turned it into his residence, which he proclaimed to be Ryōzen Castle. Acting as governor of the province of Mutsu, he proclaimed it to be the

provincial capital A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encomp ...

. Kitabatake Akiie received the support of the 7th hereditary chieftain of the

, Date Yukitomo against the forces of the Northern Court led by

Ashikaga Takauji also known as Minamoto no Takauji was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. ...

. In 1337 he led a campaign south, waging battle several times before he was killed on May 22, 1338, at the age of 21. Ryōzen Castle remained for nine years after Akiie's death, before it was destroyed by the Northern Court's army. The site was excavated in 1980, with a large amount of artifacts discovered, including

Seto ware is a type of Japanese pottery, stoneware, and ceramics produced in and around the city of Seto, Aichi, Seto in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The Japanese term for it, ''setomono'', is also used as a generic term for all pottery. Seto was the locatio ...

pottery and coins from

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

China. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1934.

Hiking Trail

Hōjudai

Hōjudai (宝寿台) is the point at the top of the cliff that stands upright from the foot of the mountain. From this point, one can see the Abukuma and Azuma Mountain Ranges.

Kokushisawa

From the bottom of the valley, Kokushisawa (国司沢) seems to stand at a nearly perfect right angle. There are ladders to reach this point on the trail.

Tengu no Sumō Jō

The "tengu sumo wrestling hall" (天狗の相撲) is a rock protruding towards the West with a flat surface the size of eight tatami mats. It is said that

tengu ''Tengu'' ( ; , , ) are a type of legendary creature found in Shinto belief. They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods or spirits). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of bird of ...

prefer this spot for wrestling.

Gomadan

Gomadan (護摩壇) is the entrance to the area that was once the site of Ryōzen Castle. There is a low hanging rock to pass under before arriving at a large flat area where it is believed that Buddhist rituals were once performed.

Amenities

There is a restroom in the parking lot before the entrance to the main trail as well as one at the peak of the mountain, at the site of Ryōzen Castle. Below the parking lot is Ryōzen's Kōsaikan (a hotel and bathhouse).

Access

The entrance to the main path up the mountain is located in a parking lot connected to the Nakamura Highway (Route 115) and the Central Tohoku Expressway. It is about 45 minutes from the Kunimi Inter-change (IC) on the Central Tohoku Expressway. It is also about fifty minutes from the Fukushima-Iizaka IC, or thirty minutes by taxi from the local

Abukuma Express Line The is a railway line in Japan, owned and operated by the third-sector operator Abukuma Kyuko. The line connects Fukushima Station in Fukushima Prefecture and Tsukinoki Station in Miyagi Prefecture. Both of these stations are also on the T ...

's Hobara Station.

References

External links

Video
by「Authentic Japan ゆめたびふくしま」(with English closed captions) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryōzen, Mount Mountains of Fukushima Prefecture History of Fukushima Prefecture Date, Fukushima Sōma, Fukushima Historic Sites of Japan Sacred mountains of Japan Places of Scenic Beauty Two-thousanders of Asia