Q.Is the highest mountain in the Kinki region really in Nara?

The roof of Kinki sits in southern Nara

Few people can name the highest mountain in the Kansai area off the top of their head. The answer is Mt. Hakkyogatake in southern Nara. At 1,915 m, it is the highest point not only in Nara but across the entire Kinki region — the two metropolitan prefectures and five prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Shiga, Wakayama, and Mie. It stands on the border of Tenkawa and Kamikitayama villages, surrounded by old-growth forests of spruce and fir. Since the topographic maps issued in 2009, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan has standardized the name as "Hakkyogatake." Steeped in mountain-worship tradition, it has also been called "Bukkyogatake" and "Hakkenzan," after a legend that the ascetic En no Gyoja buried eight scrolls of the Lotus Sutra here. Hikers usually traverse it together with neighboring Mt. Misen (1,895 m) just to the north.

A chain of 1,700-metre peaks

The Omine range runs north–south through southern Nara, and beyond Hakkyogatake it strings together peaks in the 1,700–1,900 m class. Foremost among them is Mt. Sanjogatake (1,719 m), regarded as the founding training ground of Shugendo mountain asceticism; on its summit stands Ominesan-ji temple, itself part of the World Heritage Site. For religious reasons, the Sanjogatake area remains one of the very few mountains in Japan still closed to women: gates marking the "women's boundary" stand at points such as Omine-Ohashi, and only men may enter beyond them. Other shapely, celebrated peaks — Mt. Shakagatake (1,800 m) and Mt. Daifugendake (1,780 m) among them — make traversing these ridgelines the great draw of an Omine through-hike.

The trail itself is World Heritage — the Omine Okugakemichi

The ascetic path running north–south through the Omine range, from Yoshino to Kumano, is the Omine Okugakemichi. This roughly 80 km ancient route follows rugged ridgelines in the 1,000–1,900 m range, with ritual sites called nabiki scattered along the way. In July 2004 it was inscribed as a component of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range." The property comprises three sacred precincts — Yoshino-Omine, Kumano Sanzan, and Koyasan — and the pilgrimage roads linking them, making it one of the rare cases worldwide where the routes themselves are recognized as cultural heritage. The Omine range also lies within Yoshino-Kumano National Park, a region where faith and nature are inseparably intertwined.

The lady of the forest — the Oyamarenge

The stretch from Hakkyogatake to Misen is famous for the Oyamarenge that bloom in early summer. A magnolia-family flowering tree whose elegant white blossoms have earned it the nickname "lady of the forest," its native habitat here was designated a National Natural Monument in 1928. The blooms peak for only a very short window, typically in early July. In recent years browsing damage by sika deer has become serious, so protective fencing has been installed around the colonies to safeguard this precious habitat. Because both elevation conditions and flowering times shift from year to year, it is wise to check the latest updates from mountain huts or the local government before heading up. For the foothill attractions such as Dorogawa Onsen and the Mitarai Gorge, see our companion article "Beyond Yoshinoyama."

Datasets behind this article

• National Land Numerical Information: World Cultural Heritage Data国土交通省
• National Land Numerical Information: Natural Parks Data国土交通省
• National Land Numerical Information: Tourism Resources Data国土交通省
• Yoshinoyama Cherry Blossom Records (since 1989)吉野町

Related reading

• What is Nara's highest mountain? Nara's mountains by the numbers
• Beyond Yoshinoyama: what's in Oku-Yamato?
• Does everyone in Nara live in the north?