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Yoshino Kumano NP, Nara
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After the Odaigahara road opened in 1961, a Kamikitayama rice merchant created a local salmon sushi wrapped in bamboo leaves. Its name, ゐざさ寿司 (Izasa sushi), comes from the legendary boar deity Izasa-ō, said to wear bamboo on its back.
A paper company once sought permission to cut 247 hectares of its 689-hectare beech forest in West Odaigahara. Researchers, hikers, students, and citizens rallied to protect it; the resulting land purchase pioneered a national-park area reserved for conservation management.
“Forget your bento, never your umbrella” is local wisdom here: Odaigahara recorded 8,214 mm of rain in 1920—over 8 metres in one year. Moist ocean air rises from Kumano Bay, only about 20 km away.
Odaigahara’s broad, gently rolling summit is not a volcano or an old lava field. It is a rare uplifted peneplain: an ancient, eroded lowland that continued rising to become mountain country.
Odaigahara is a three-way watershed. Its streams feed the Miyagawa, which reaches Ise Bay; the Kumano River, which flows to Kumano-nada; and the Kinokawa, which empties into the Kii Channel.
Odaigahara’s east and west have different forest characters: the east has subalpine spruce forest, while the west holds Pacific-side beech forest. The spruce grows near the southern limit of its Japanese range.
This is a remarkable place for moss: the Bryological Society of Japan counts about 350 kinds on Odaigahara’s plateau and more than 650 across the wider mountain area. The moss also absorbs moisture that helps spruce and fir seeds grow.
The Odaigahara salamander grows to about 14–20 cm, but its range is much smaller than its name might suggest: it lives only in parts of the Kii Peninsula. Nara, Wakayama, and Mie each designate it a natural monument.
Explorer Matsuura Takeshirō, known for naming Hokkaido, first climbed Odaigahara at 68 and returned at 69 and 70. He helped improve trails and build a hut; a memorial in West Odaigahara holds part of his remains.
In 1891, Furukawa Takashi came to Odaigahara as a place of spiritual training. He spent about 100 days alone, then returned for 3 months of winter practice; he later completed Odaikyōkai, a mountain church, in 1899.
The snags at Masaki Pass tell a relatively recent story: after the 1959 Ise Bay Typhoon blew down trees, clearing the fallen trunks opened the canopy. The ground dried, moss declined, and dwarf bamboo spread, making forest renewal harder.
Fences protect Odaigahara’s spruce and fir seedlings from hungry sika deer, but dense dwarf bamboo can still block their growth. Conservation teams also clear bamboo around young trees so they have a better chance to reach the light.
In local lore, the hunger spirit Hidarugami could suddenly leave a mountain traveler unable to move. The old remedy was to leave a bite of lunch as an offering—or, if already afflicted, eat even a single grain of rice.
A tale says priest Tansei sealed many spirits in the ox-shaped Ushiishi stone, but the one-legged Ippon Tatara escaped on December 20 and was feared on nearby Obamine. Local lore also says tapping the stone brings rain.
The West Odaigahara clearing called Kaitaku-ato (“settlement remains”) marks Meiji-era attempts to grow crops that failed in the harsh conditions. After about a century, the abandoned ground had become forest again.
