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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Saitama
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Ryokami’s jagged skyline is built from chert, formed from microscopic radiolarians’ silica shells on an ancient ocean floor 250–150 million years ago. Hard as quartz, it resists erosion and forms sharp ridges.
At Ryokami’s shrines, wolf statues stand where many shrines have guardian dogs. Worshippers sought the wolves’ protection from fire and thieves; local tradition even says a divine yama-inu could be “borrowed.”
Traditional explanations say the name honors Izanagi and Izanami, comes from Yōkami—the mountain Yamato Takeru supposedly watched for 8 days—or refers to a mountain sacred to an eight-headed dragon king.
Near Kiyotaki Hut, summer visitors may hear the famous “buppōsō” call after dark—but its source is the small konohazuku owl, not the blue-green Buppōsō bird. That bird actually makes a rough, rasping call.
The blue-violet herb hiiragisō (Ajuga incisa), endemic to Japan, is recorded in the Ryokami area. The Environment Ministry rates it Vulnerable nationwide, with fewer than 10,000 flowering plants estimated.
A conservation trust has bought forest on Ryokami since 2014. Its first 5.9-hectare parcel sits around 800 m in the Komori River watershed, in forest habitat for black bears, Japanese serow and goshawks.
The eastern Hinata-Ōya approach is more than a hiking path: stone Buddhist images and stelae remain along it, reminders of Ryokami’s long history as a sacred mountain and a place of Shugendō training.
Every April 18, Ryōgami Shrine at Hinata-Ōya holds a mountain-opening ceremony to pray for the safety of climbers and others involved—a local ritual welcoming the season on this sacred peak.
