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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Gunma / Niigata
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Ozesō, a rare Japanese alpine flower, has just 3 known wild homes: Hokkaido’s Teshio Mountains and Gunma’s Mt. Shibutsu and Mt. Tanigawa. All 3 have serpentine rock at the surface.
Viewed from Numata or Tsukiyono, Tanigawa’s twin summits resemble cat ears: Toma is “near,” Oki “far.” Oki stands 1,977 m, 14 m higher, but the triangulation point is on lower Toma.
Local tradition says pilgrims once tossed offerings from Oki toward the ravine below, giving a nearby gully the name Zeniiresawa, or “coin-offering ravine.” Edo-period coins have reportedly been found in Ichinokura-sawa.
A 1380 origin legend says villagers climbed the peak after a divine light appeared and found a mirror hanging from a cherry tree in full bloom. They built a shrine there to enshrine it.
At the foothill Fuji Sengen Shrine, 2 bronze hanging images dated 1565 show seated Kokūzō and standing 11-headed Kannon; both bear the name “Fuji Sengen Daibosatsu,” joining Buddhist figures with Oki’s Sengen devotion.
Oki-no-mimi holds Tanigawa’s Sengen inner shrine. Yamabushi once climbed here in early July; that pilgrimage has ended, but a mountain-opening and safety-prayer ceremony is still held on July’s first Sunday.
At Oki, rock helps explain the dramatic skyline: granite underlies the lower mountain, while erosion-resistant serpentinite and basalt make up much of the upper ridge and its abrupt cliffs.
Some crystalline-schist blocks enclosed in serpentinite near Tanigawa’s summit record metamorphism about 300 million years ago. The surrounding serpentinite and basalt are so puzzling that their original ages remain unresolved.
Oki lies on Japan’s Central Watershed: water falling on one side eventually reaches the Sea of Japan, while the other side drains toward the Pacific. The same ridge is steep and cliff-bound in Gunma, gentler on Niigata’s side.
