Mount Takao

Mount Takao is a 599 m mountain in Hachioji, about 50 km west of central Tokyo and the heart of Meiji no Mori Takao Quasi-National Park. It has been a mountain of worship since the Edo period, and the halls of the temple Takaosan Yakuoin stand on its slopes.

Yakuoin and the tengu

According to the temple, Yakuoin was founded in 744 by the monk Gyoki on the order of Emperor Shomu, as a temple to pray for the protection of eastern Japan. Its name comes from its first main image, Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing. In 1375 the monk Shungen came from Daigo in Kyoto and enshrined Izuna Daigongen (飯縄大権現), a mountain deity, who has been the main image ever since. Izuna Daigongen was revered by Sengoku-period warlords, and the temple later prospered under the Tokugawa family.

Yakuoin is one of the three head temples of the Chizan school of Shingon Buddhism, with Naritasan Shinsho-ji and Kawasaki Daishi. The mountain is also a centre of Shugendo, mountain asceticism, and the two waterfalls Biwa-taki and Hebi-taki are used for waterfall training. The tengu, long-nosed mountain spirits, are held to be Izuna Daigongen's attendants, and the mountain is known for its tengu worship.

Trails

Seven trails lead to the summit: Nos 1 to 6 and the Inariyama course. No. 1, the main approach, is mostly paved and passes Yakuoin. No. 4 crosses a suspension bridge, No. 6 follows a stream past Biwa-taki, and the Inariyama course is the steepest. A cable car and a chairlift run part of the way up from Kiyotaki, near Takaosanguchi Station. Near the top of the cable car is a monkey park. The mountain is the eastern starting point of the Tokai Nature Trail, which runs about 1,697 km to Minoo near Osaka.

The summit looks out over Tokyo and, in clear weather, to Mount Fuji. In 2007 the first Michelin green guide to Japan gave Mount Takao three stars.

Nature

Mount Takao sits on the boundary between warm-temperate evergreen forest and cool-temperate deciduous forest, so plants of both grow side by side, and the north and south slopes are wooded differently. The mountain is known for its cedars and its autumn colour. Its forests were long protected: the temple banned killing on the mountain, the Hojo clan and then the Tokugawa shogunate guarded it, it became imperial forest in the Meiji era and national forest after the war, and in 1967 it was made a quasi-national park to mark 100 years since the Meiji Restoration. Several plants were first described from Takao, among them the maple yagurumakaede, and wild boar, Japanese squirrels and giant flying squirrels live in its woods.