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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Nagano
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An Azumino tale gives Jōnenbō a 5-gō flask that holds 5 shō—10 times its capacity. It says the oni, follower of Hachimen Daio, settled on Mayumi-dake before the peak took its present name.
From Azumino, spring thaw sketches the dark monk Jōnenbō on Jōnen’s slope; a three-toothed hoe appears nearby later. Farmers used these snow figures as seasonal guides to fieldwork.
Naturalist Yukio Tabuchi climbed Jōnen 206 times and studied the Takane-hikage butterfly at Jōnen Pass. Its caterpillars survive 2 winters, so it takes 3 calendar years to become an adult.
When Jōnen Hut opened in 1919, climbers brought their own rice and miso; the hut served rabbit trapped nearby, dried cod, wild greens and mushrooms, cooked over a hearth.
In 1894, Walter Weston became the first foreigner to summit Jōnen with 3 local bear-hunting guides. His account says they paused to catch giant salamanders, then prized as remedies for children’s illnesses.
At Horigane Central Park, a 1992 bronze Jōnenbō sports wings and wheels under his belly. Its sculptor imagined the legendary figure swooping down from Jōnen, then racing through town.
Jōnen Hut opened on Jōnen Pass in 1919, but its founders also pioneered a route from the Matsumoto Plain to Yari-ga-take—the shortest way to that peak at the time.
On September 17–18, 1992, Crown Prince Naruhito stayed at Jōnen Hut during the Jōnen–Chōgatake traverse. The hut records it as his final mountain trip before marriage.
Jōnen’s 2,857 m pyramid is a hometown signature: visible from Matsumoto and Azumino on clear days, it appears in local school songs and often shares the frame with Matsumoto Castle.
