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Yoshino Kumano NP, Nara
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At 1,915 m, Mount Hakkyo is the highest point in the Kinki region—20 m above nearby Mount Misen. It is the rooftop of this part of Japan.
Despite its name, “great mountain lotus,” Oyamarenge is a magnolia, not a lotus. Nicknamed “angel flower,” its habitat around Hakkyo became a national Natural Monument in 1928.
A mountain legend says the ascetic En no Gyōja buried all 8 volumes of the Lotus Sutra here—one explanation for the name Hakkyo, or “Eight Sutras.” The peak is also called Butsukyō-ga-take and Hakken-san.
Hakkyo’s summit is the 51st sacred station among the 75 “nabiki” prayer places on the Ōmine Okugake pilgrimage route. The route links Yoshino and Kumano and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape.
In spring 2022, rangers found 4 deer inside a fence protecting Hakkyo’s Oyamarenge. Park and Tenkawa staff drove them out; a breach could undo more than a decade of protection.
On the southeast slope between Hakkyo and Mount Misen, about 9 hectares of subalpine shira-biso (Veitch’s fir) forest are protected as the Bukkyogatake Primeval Forest, a national Natural Monument since 1922.
By the late 15th century at the latest, cutting trees beside the Ōmine Okugake route was forbidden because it served as a place of religious practice. The mountain’s sacred trail is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
