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Minami Alps NP, Yamanashi / Nagano
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Nearby Shichiken brewery says its brewing water begins as Kai-Komagatake snowmelt and filters through granite for about 27 years. The mountain’s streams also nourish the region’s celebrated Mukawa rice fields.
At Yokote Komagatake Shrine, written wishes have been woven into straw sandals and carried to the summit for people unable to climb. A local 2016 report records the custom’s revival after a long pause.
From Nagano’s Ina Valley, this peak was called Higashi-Komagatake (“East Koma”) or Shirakuzure; from Kai, it was Komagatake. In 1907, Japanese Alpine Club climbers set out to settle whether the names meant 2 mountains—and confirmed they meant 1.
Shugendo ascetic Obi Genzaburo is credited with opening the traditional Kuroto route in 1816 and died only a few years later. As he requested, 9 objects he used in training were sent from his home village to Yokote after his 13th memorial observance.
Kai-Komagatake can look snow-covered long after the snow melts: its summit exposes pale granite. That rock stands out among nearby Southern Alps peaks such as Kitadake and Senjogatake, which are made mainly of sedimentary rock.
Every April, local residents bring taiko, flute and kagura dance to the foothill shrine, thanking the deities honored on the mountain and praying for good harvests. Hokuto recognizes the tradition as intangible folk culture.
In 1903, British mountaineer Walter Weston met a chanting pilgrimage on the Kuroto Ridge and saw prayers left at the summit. Before World War II, white-robed devotees climbed with bells, reciting Shinto purification prayers and the Buddhist Heart Sutra.
Local lore offers more than 1 horse story for “Koma”: one tells of a white heavenly steed resting on the summit; another says Prince Shōtoku’s legendary black horse grew strong on the mountain’s spring water. Both are traditional tales, not established history.
Marishiten, a separate granite peak southeast of the main summit, has its own sacred summit. Worshippers left it crowded with stone steles, small shrines, deity statues and iron swords—a striking collection on a rocky spire.
Japanese ptarmigan inhabit Kai-Komagatake’s high alpine zone. Their plumage shifts from mottled brown in summer to nearly all white in winter, helping these small mountain birds blend into their changing surroundings.
