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Nikko NP, Tochigi
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Summit excavations uncovered about 3,000 objects from Nara through Edo times: Buddhist tools, mirrors, weapons, coins and farm tools. One copper seal reads “Tsuga Niji-in seal,” thought to name a provincial nunnery.
Nantai’s eruptions shaped more than the cone: lava blocked the old Daiya River to create Lake Chuzenji; pumice later filled lakes around Senjogahara, helping form its wetland. Kegon and Ryuzu Falls mark the outlets.
Kegon Falls has moved: erosion has cut its cliff about 800 meters upstream from where it first formed. Its water comes from Lake Chuzenji, a basin made when Nantai’s lava dammed the ancient river.
Every Aug. 1, worshippers set out at midnight for sunrise at the summit. Once called Nantai Zenjo or Tanabata Zenjo, this pilgrimage remains the centerpiece of the mountain’s summer festival.
In Futarasan Shrine’s tradition, Nikko’s sacred peaks form a divine family: Nantai’s Ōnamuchi is the father, Nyohō’s Tagorihime the mother, and Mt. Taro’s Ajisukitakahikone their son.
Nikko’s chronology records Shodo’s first climb attempts in 767 and 781 as failures. On his third try in 782, 15 years after his first attempt, he reached Nantai’s summit and established the Okumiya.
In 807, during a drought, Shodo climbed Nantai and performed a rainmaking rite. A local historical account says rain followed and he was awarded the Buddhist rank Dentō Hōshi.
Mount Nantai was newly classified as an active volcano in 2017, after geologists found evidence of an eruption within the previous 10,000 years. Japan’s Meteorological Agency dates the latest confirmed eruption to about 7,000 years ago.
Until 1872, women were barred from entering sacred Nantai; the Woman’s Hall at Fukasawa marked a place to worship toward the peak. After the ban ended, summer inns opened on Lake Chuzenji for pilgrims.
Local legend says a Futarasan shrine maiden disguised herself as a boy to climb Nantai. Discovered at Oojiri by Lake Chuzenji, she was turned to stone; the Miko Stone is linked to her tale.
Nantai was also called Futara-san, a name Nikko’s tourism office links to Fudaraku—the Buddhist paradise associated with Kannon. The old name preserves a Buddhist thread in the mountain’s sacred history.
A local legend ties the red Shinkyo Bridge to Shodo’s climb toward Nantai: when his party met the rushing Daiya River, 2 giant serpents appeared and formed a crossing. It is an origin story, not a historical account.
