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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Kanagawa
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Every October 24, sacred fire travels from Hakone Mototsumiya down this ropeway, then by boat across Lake Ashi to Hakone Shrine. Kept burning overnight, it lights torches carried to shrines around Hakone the next day.
This 1,783-meter cableway climbs 590.8 meters in 7 minutes, using just 2 support towers; they stand as far as 730 meters apart. It opened on April 27, 1963, and its cabins carry up to 101 people.
A taste of Kanagawa links coast and summit: Miura-born Misaki Donuts created ropeway-shop treats including “San-san Shōnan Gold,” filled with white bean paste and locally grown Shōnan Gold citrus.
At Bakōseki, a hollow in a sacred rock is said to be the hoofprint of the white horse that brought a deity to the summit. Shrine tradition says the water collected there never dries, even in drought.
People revered Hakone’s mountains long before the lakeside Hakone Shrine’s traditional founding in 757. Today’s Hakone Mototsumiya, the shrine’s upper shrine on Komagatake, was rebuilt in 1964.
The green slopes hide a fiery past: the ropeway crosses lava flows that helped form Hakone’s central volcanic cone. Look closely at the mountain’s landforms and you can still make out traces of those flows.
September and October bring helmet-shaped, blue-purple Hakone monkshood to the summit. On windy Komagatake it grows upright, unlike Yamato monkshood—a form thought to help it withstand exposed slopes. The flower is poisonous, so admire it without touching.
Hakone kometsutsuji, a shrub named for this region, grows on Komagatake only in a small patch of the windy west slope near the summit. The Forestry Agency protects this rare population in a special forest reserve.
After the 2015 Owakudani eruption, the trail between Komagatake and nearby Kamiyama remained closed amid volcanic-gas concerns. It reopened on March 28, 2025, after surveys detected no gas and repairs were completed.
