or simply Mount Katsuragi is a mountain in the

Kongō Range The is a mountain range on the borders of Nara and Osaka Prefectures on the island of Honshū in the southwest of central Japan. The range separates the Osaka Plain and the Nara Basin, and forms a natural place for the boundary between the prefe ...

straddling the prefectural border between

Chihayaakasaka, Osaka 250px, Kusunoki Masashige's birthplace 250px, Rice Terraces near Shimo-Akasaka Castle is a village located in Minamikawachi District, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 4,970 in 2267 households and a populatio ...

and

Gose, Nara is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on March 31, 1958. As of September 1, 2014, the city has an estimated population of 27,950 and estimated population density of 440 persons per km². The total area is 60.58 km ...

in Japan. The peak elevation is . The mountain is located along the

Gose Line The is a railway line of Kintetsu Corporation in Nara Prefecture, Japan connecting Shakudo Station in Katsuragi and Gose Station in Gose. The line has four stations including the terminal Gose and the transfer station Shakudo. It is mainly use ...

of the

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as , is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railway network connects Osaka, Nara, Kyot ...

. The base of the mountain has many different Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. The mountain is accessible via the

Katsuragisan Ropeway The , legally referred to as , is an aerial tramway line in Gose, Nara, Japan. The line is the only aerial tramway line in Japan that is directly owned and operated by a major private railway company, the Kintetsu Railway. Opened in 1967, the lin ...

on the east side, as well as several different hiking trails on all sides of varying difficulty and length. The summit has a local government-run lodge and campground for those who want to spend the night or rest after ascending Mount Yamato Katsuragi. Other names for the mountain include Mount Kaina, Mount Kamo, Mount Tenshin, and Shinoga Peak.

Location and naming

Mount Yamato Katsuragi is located within

Kongō-Ikoma-Kisen Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park in Nara, Ōsaka, and Wakayama Prefectures, Japan. It was established in 1958. Places of interest * Mount Ikoma, Mount Kongō, , , Hōzan-ji, Taima-dera, , the burial place of Shōtoku Taishi, the ruins of , Chihay ...

, with a peak elevation of .

Mount Nijō Mount Nijō(二上山, Nijōzan) is a mountain in the Kongō Range straddling the prefectural border between Taishi, Osaka and Katsuragi, Nara in Japan. Mount Nijō has twin peaks, Odake (517m) and Medake (474m). From the top there are sweeping v ...

is about to the north, and

Mount Kongō is a mountain in the Kawachi region of Osaka Prefecture, Kansai, Japan. It is near Mount Yamato Katsuragi. The mountain has lent its name to a series of naval ships and ship classes: the Imperial Japanese Navy's 1877 ironclad ''Kongō''; ...

is about to the south-southwest. It is part of the

. Mount Yamato Katsuragi has gently sloping sides which rise from the neighboring Katsuragi Plateau. The mountain was produced by

orogenic Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent boundary, convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumpl ...

folding, and is composed of

schistose Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) 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 cools and solidifies undergro ...

overlaid with a shallow layer of sandy and gravelly alluvial soil. The Kongō Range was formerly known as the before being renamed to its current title. Mount Yamato Katsuragi has a number of different historical names: , , and were all used in ancient

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, the ...

. It was known as in ancient

Kawachi Province was a province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province. It was also known as . Geography The area was radically different in the past, with Kawachi ...

Access and amenities

On the east side of the mountain, the

is an

aerial tramway An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway, aerial tram, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip ...

which transports visitors between at the base of the mountain and near the top of Mount Yamato Katsuragi. The ropeway is operated by Kintetsu Railway. A one-way trip lasts about 5 minutes and covers . Tozanguchi Station is accessed by taking a bus from stop three in front of

Kintetsu Gose Station is a railway station in Gose, Nara Prefecture, Japan. This station has a transfer to JR Gose Station on the Wakayama Line. Line * Kintetsu Gose Line Layout The station has 2 side platforms serving a track each, with a train crossing in the s ...

(which is directly across the street from JR's

Gose Station is a railway station in Gose, Nara, Japan. Kintetsu Gose Station is located near the station. Lines * JR-West ** Wakayama Line Platforms and tracks The station has 2 side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform ...

). The ride to Tozanguchi Station is between 15–20 minutes. A number of hiking trails are accessible from all sides of Mount Yamato Katsuragi. The weaves under the ropeway as it goes up the mountain, taking about 70–80 minutes for the ascent. The follows a northwest path before curving back toward the southwest. It takes about 2 hours to ascend the mountain via this trail. The hike passes fields of as well as

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

of Japanese beech trees near the end of the trail. Starting your hike at in nearby Katsuragi, the trail goes west for about before meeting up with the main Diamond Trail, where you turn south for another . This trail takes around 3.5 hours to hike. There are the same fields of rhododendrons about 30 minutes from the summit along this trail. On the Osaka side of the mountain, there are four different trails to choose from. One starts at the Kano bus stop near Shiraki Elementary School in Kanan, which takes about 4 hours to hike. Hiking the trail starting at the Kauchi bus stop near Kauchi Elementary takes about just over 3 hours. Starting on the south at the entrance to the Mizukoshi Tunnel (on Route 309) gives you two different trails (one going east and the other going west), and the hiking time is about the same for each route. The east route will take you by Tsutsujien, a park full of rhododendrons just south of the lodge. , operated by the local government, offers overnight lodging and food for up to 70 people in 17 different rooms. The lodge includes a gift shop carrying local specialty foods, and has traditional ofuro bathing. It is located about south of the summit along the hiking trail. The lodge also operates a campground just to the northeast of the summit along the north trail.

Environs

The city of Katsuragi maintains two city parks near the base of the mountain. is just northeast of the base of the mountain. Mount Yashiki Park is northeast of Katsuragi Sanroku Park. Both parks offer good views of Mount Yamato Katsuragi as well as other mountains in the area. There are a number of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples near Mount Yamato Katsuragi. They are listed alphabetically. * * * * * * * *

Gallery

File:Mount Yamatokatsuragi06.JPG, The summit File:View from Mount Yamatokatsuragi4.jpg, View from halfway up the Kitaone Trail File:170514 Mt Yamatokatsuragi Gose Nara pref Japan06s35.jpg, Tsutsujien, just south of the lodge File:Mount Yamatokatsuragi05.JPG, Katsuragi Kogen Lodge File:河南赤阪BP.png, View of Mount Yamato Katsuragi from the

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

side (west) File:Kujiranotaki.jpg, Kujira Waterfall, about 10–15 minutes walk west from Tozanguchi Station at the base File:Katsuragitozanguchi sta1.jpg, Tozanguchi Station, at the base of the

References

External links

*
City of Gose - Sightseeing Guide

Katsuragi Kogen Lodge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamato Katsuragi, Mount Mountains of Nara Prefecture Mountains of Osaka Prefecture