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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Nagano / Gifu
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Gongenike fills a roughly 700 m-wide crater in Kengamine’s lava dome. JMA identifies at least 14 eruptions near the summit in the last 10,000 years; the latest, about 500 years ago, is known from geology, not written records.
Two shrines stand back-to-back near the 3,026 m summit: Gifu-side Norikura Hongū faces west, while Nagano-side Asahi Gongen faces east. Kengamine is a mountaintop sanctuary shared across the prefectural border.
Norikura supplied 19 ptarmigan from 3 families to restore birds in the Central Alps, where they had vanished; a wild female had arrived independently. By 2025, the population was estimated at about 190.
Every August 8, residents of Iwaiyazawa once climbed to Kengamine and offered a lion dance at the Norikura Festival. The celebration is now held at Naka-no-sha shrine in Tatamidaira.
A local shrine tradition reaches back to 1181: a retainer of warlord Kiso Yoshinaka reportedly carried a golden image up Kengamine, praying for victory in the Genpei War. The shrine was renamed Norikura Hongū in 1949.
By the late 18th century, sunrise ascents to Asahi Gongen had become popular: pilgrims believed worshipping there and seeing the first light brought blessings.
On the approach to Kengamine, nearby Kodama-dake is named for Kodama, a silkworm guardian still worshipped in Okaya. Its summit is strewn with gravel resembling grains of rice and beans.
