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Daisen-Oki NP, Tottori
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In the 8th-century Izumo Fudoki, a deity enlarges Izumo by pulling land across the sea, fastening the rope—today’s Yumigahama Peninsula—to Daisen, then called Hinokami-dake. The mountain is the anchor in this creation story.
Daisen’s cattle fair grew from a religious custom: farmers brought their animals to seek protection from the temple’s Jizō. By the mid-Meiji era, the fair had become Japan’s largest, trading more than 10,000 cattle and horses a year.
The local sticky rice now called Daisen okowa was once known as “Asari okowa,” after an old district. It is thought to have spread from Daisenji’s vegetarian cooking and became a filling lunch for pilgrims and cattle-market traders.
Near Daisen’s summit, about 8 hectares of dwarf Japanese yew form Japan’s largest colony of this shrub. It also marks the plant’s southwestern range limit, and the rare forest is protected as a Special Natural Monument.
In 1920, Tottori began Japan’s first Wagyu registration program, drawing on local cattle traded at Daisen’s fair. The market closed in 1937, but those cattle helped lay groundwork for the Wagyu industry.
Daisenji’s long history took a sharp turn in 1875, when it lost its temple status during the Meiji-era upheaval. Its central Gongen shrine became Ogamiyama Shrine’s Okumiya; Daisenji regained its name in 1903.
Daisen’s highest peak is Kengamine at 1,729 m, but collapse has closed the ridge route leading to it. The usual summit reached by climbers is Misen, at 1,709 m—20 m lower.
After trampling left Daisen’s summit plants badly damaged, a volunteer effort began in 1985: climbers carried one sapling and one stone uphill. The stones help steady eroded slopes, while summit vegetation is gradually recovering.
At Daisen’s summer-opening festival, a procession of about 2,000 torches winds from Ogamiyama Shrine’s Okumiya to Bakuroza. Seen along the approach, the flames form a glowing river through the early-summer night.
Local tradition says the Jizō worshipped at Daisenji appeared from a pool near Daisen’s summit. Pilgrims sought the mountain’s “Rishō water” for long life and prayed for good harvests.
Clear mountain water helped make tofu an important food around Daisenji, where it was used in Buddhist vegetarian cooking. Tofu shops still line the temple approach, keeping that food tradition part of the neighborhood.
