, is a mountain in the town of Kotoura,

Tottori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...

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 687 metres and is part of the Daisen

volcanic belt A volcanic belt is a large volcanically active region. Other terms are used for smaller areas of activity, such as volcanic fields or volcanic systems. Volcanic belts are found above zones of unusually high temperature () where magma is created ...

. It is within the borders of the

Daisen-Oki National Park is a national park in the Chūgoku region, Honshū, Japan, and spans the prefectures of Okayama, Shimane, and Tottori. Mount Daisen is the focus of the park, which also includes the volcanic mountains and plains of Hiruzen, Mount Kenashi, ...

Outline

Mt. Senjō is believed to have been created by a lava flow caused by the ancient Daisen volcano between 1.8 million years ago and 500,000 years ago, which subsequently was eroded over a long period of time, forming a unique mountain shape. Alternatively, there is a theory that it is the outer rim of a caldera formed by activity of the ancient Daisen volcano. The top of Mt. Senjō is wide and gentle, but the surroundings are steep slopes, especially on the eastern slope, where steep cliffs formed by cooling and solidifying lava extend for several kilometers.

History

Along with

Mount Daisen is a dormant stratovolcano in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It has an elevation of . This mountain is the highest in the Chūgoku region, and the most important volcano on the Daisen volcanic belt, which is a part of the Southwestern Honshu volca ...

and

Mount Mitoku is a mountain located in Misasa, Tottori, Misasa, Tottori Prefecture. Mount Mitoku has an Topographical summit, elevation of . Mount Mitoku was known from ancient times as a place of both religious significance and scenic beauty. The mountain is ...

, Mount Senjō has been 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 ...

by 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 ...

'' religion. A temple called Chishaku-ji was founded in the Wadō era (708-715) and the remains of about 20 temple structures have been found on the summit. At the end of the

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 ...

Emperor Go-Daigo Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 ''Go-Daigo-tennō'') (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')後醍醐天皇 (96) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order o ...

was exiled to the

Oki Islands The is an archipelago in the Sea of Japan, the islands of which are administratively part of Oki District, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The islands have a total area of . Only four of the around 180 islands are permanently inhabited. Much of the ...

in 1331 by the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yori ...

. He managed to escape in 1333, and although aiming for

Izumo Province was an Old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province is in the Chūgoku region. History During the early Kofun period (3rd century) this reg ...

, the winds blew his ship eastward and he drifted ashore in the port of Nawa in

Hōki Province was a former province in the area that is today the western half of Tottori Prefecture in the San'in region of Japan. Hōki was bordered by Inaba, Mimasaka, Izumo, Bitchū, and Bingo Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of ...

. The ''

shugo , commonly translated as ' ilitarygovernor', 'protector', or 'constable', was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the shogun to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The position gave way to th ...

'' of Hōki, Nawa Nagatoshi offered Emperor Go-Daigo sanctuary and the use of his fortified residence at Mount Senjō.

Battle of Mount Senjōsan

On April 4, 1333, Sasaki Kiyotaka, the ''shugo'' of

Oki Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan consisted of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, located off the coast of the provinces of Izumo Province, Izumo and Hōki Province, Hōki. The area is now Oki District, Shimane, Oki District in moder ...

, led his forces against Mt. Senjō in an attempt to recapture Emperor Go-Daigo, and was assisted by the local Ogamo and Kasuya clans. On Emperor Go-Daigo's side, the armed monks of Mount Daisen came to his aid. At Mount Senjō, the Nawa forces tied four to five hundred banners to trees to make their army appear to be much larger than it was in reality, and occasionally shot arrows to keep the shogunate forces in check. During the assault on the mountain, Sasaki Masatsuna was struck by an arrow in his right eye and died. Sasaki Sadamune was trapped in a pocket and surrendered. Unaware of the setbacks of the commanders on his flanks, Sasaki Kiyotaka led he main attack, but his forces became confused on the mountain paths and the Nawa army, taking advantage of a storm in the evening, drove many of the attackers off the cliffs. As a result of the defeat of the shogunate forces, numerous western warlords who had been hesitant in support switched sides and pledged fealty to Emperor Go-Daigo against the Kamakura shogunate. According to the medieval chronicle ''

Taiheiki The (Chronicle of Great Peace) is a medieval Japanese historical epic (see '' gunki monogatari'') written in the late 14th century and covers the period from 1319 to 1367. It deals primarily with the Nanboku-chō, the period of war between the ...

'', this enabled Emperor Go-Daigo conclusively defeat the Sasaki clan and to capture all of Hōki Province. The Kamakura shogunate dispatched two armies to subdue the rebellion; however the force led by Hōjō Takaie along the

San'yōdō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. The San'yōdō corresponds for the most part with the modern conception of the San'yō region. This name derives from the i ...

highway was defeated by the

Akamatsu clan is a Japanese samurai family of direct descent from Minamoto no Morifusa of the Murakami-Genji (Minamoto clan). Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Akamatsu" at ''No ...

and the force 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. ...

switched sides and destroyed the shogunate's stronghold of

Rokuhara Tandai was the post of the chiefs of the Kamakura shogunate in imperial capital Kyoto whose agency, the , kept responsibility for security in Kinai and judicial affairs on western Japan, and negotiated with the Imperial Court in Kyoto, imperial court. ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. This enabled Emperor Go-Daido to return in triumph to Kyoto in June.

Senjōsan temporary palace site

As one of the important sites of the

Genkō War The , also known as the , was a civil war fought in Japan between the Emperor Go-Daigo and the Kamakura Shogunate from 1331 to 1333. The Genkō War was named after Genkō, the Japanese era corresponding to the period of 1331 to 1334 when the wa ...

, the location of the battle was commemorated by the post-

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

Japanese government. Per the ''Taiheiki'' chronicle, rice that could not be transported to Mount Senjō before the battle was burn along with the rice granary buildings to prevent it from being used by the pro-shogunate forces. The discovery of carbonized rice grains behind the Nawa Jinja, 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 ...

near the base of Mount Senjō, led to the conclusion that this must have been the site of the Nawa residence. As this had been the residence of Emperor Go-Daigo for some 80 days after his escape from Oki, this location was declared to be the , and was designated as a National Historic Site in 1932. The trailhead to climb Mt. Senjō is about 15 minutes by car from Akasaki Station on the

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

References

External links