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San'in Kaigan NP, Hyogo
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
A hometown memory became this ride: Kinosaki-born Kansai Electric president Shiro Otagaki, who led Kurobe Dam’s construction, proposed a ropeway to Daishi Mountain—the hill he had raced around as a boy.
Before bathing, visitors traditionally stopped at Onsenji: they prayed, received a special ladle and learned the hot-spring bathing ritual. The temple still teaches this old custom.
At the summit café, local flavors ride high too: its hot dogs feature long sausages made with Tajima beef, Tajima duck and Yoka pork, tucked into house-made bread with views toward the Sea of Japan.
Onsenji’s legend says its Kannon was carved from the same sacred tree as Nara’s Hasedera image, then washed ashore near Kinosaki. Its smaller, tree-tip carving is said to explain the place-name: “Kinosaki,” or “tree’s tip.”
The 676 m ride has just 2 support towers. Its 2 cabins have no motors; a single motor at the summit pulls their linked cable, and reversing it swaps which cabin climbs and which descends.
Onsenji, reached at the ropeway’s midway stop, preserves a rare thousand-armed Kannon with 834 arms. That’s far more than the 42 arms typical of this kind of statue.
The ropeway’s 3 stations, built in 1962, were registered as national tangible cultural properties in 2017. Their distinctive designs were recognized as part of the story of this mountain transport link.
At the summit, visitors can toss 3 small unglazed pottery discs in a set order: yakuyoke to ward off misfortune, kissho for good fortune, and kanro—“sweet dew”—for happiness.
On the ropeway’s wooded slope, staff single out fuji-ki (yukunoki), a tree they report flowering about once every 4 years. Their FAQ forecasts its next bloom around 2029.
