Thank you for writing about one of my favorite mountains in Japan. Mount Daisen has such majesty and beauty. Unfortunately, I have never hiked there. But I have had picnics on Daisen's slopes. undoubtedly, the best picnics in my life.
I almost couldn't believe that you were writing about Daisen - Izumo-no-Fuji when seen from the northern Izumo part of Shimane-ken - in fact the perfect cone shape was viewed directly from my staff-room when I spent two years at Matsue-Shōgyō (Commercial) High 1991 & 1992. Or from southwestern Tottori-ken - Hōki-no-Fuji. The drive up to the town on Daisen - tall trees either side - there was something of north-western US appearance to my mind's eye - leading just east from Seattle towards Snoqualmie Falls? Anyway - in the springtime Daisen - new green leaves, yama-zakura - snow wrapped around tree trunks - or - as in the photos you posted - sliding down the steep valleys from those peaks. Or in the summer reaching above the humidity - or the golds and bronzes and crimsons of the autumn - always beautiful. I've not climbed to the top - to Misen - though friends regularly did so - and a Buddhist priest friend from nearby Hōfu declared that it had given him purpose when returning dejected and depressed from his priestly studies - on the verge of giving up. He decided to climb to the top - found his purpose - and when I met him 30+ years later - gave me one of his paintings of Daisen - his daily ritual was to begin the day with a watercolour painting of Daisen. I have it still. This was just weeks before I walked the 88-temple pilgrimage around Shikoku - and he gave me a juzu made from the seeds of the banyan tree beneath which Buddha achieved his enlightenment or satori. Which he had just brought back from India on one of his regular visits. In meeting him other uncanny connections came to light. I was walking the 88 because many years earlier I had joined a Rinzai sect Priest (and high school Principal) his wife - an English teacher colleague of mine - and their youngest son - of three - Tatsushi - then 12 - just in his first weeks of middle school - on a local Izumo section of a fuda-uchi pilgrimage - in honour of my colleague's mother not long passed away. Years later the son was adopted by his father's aunt and husband - a Shingon Priest - no sons, a daughter married to a businessman in Ōsaka - no one to take over the temple - Mine-ji (in Unnan-shi in Shimane-ken). Tatsushi went to add to his Rinzai studies to - in some senses - come up to speed on Shingon rituals with the man I had met near Hōfu - and who later officiated at Tatsushi's wedding. And changing his name to Matsuura Kaihen. But before that my wife and I had attended his ritual severance from his father's Rinzai sect temple - to the welcome ceremony and celebrations of his new Shingen temple life (a temple dating back to the 7th-century). Everything quite fantastic - yama-bushi in attendance, fire ceremonies etc., etc. Kaihen had walked the 88-temples and inspired me to do the same - and it was to Mine-ji that I went upon completing the 88-temples - and left there my hat and my staff and my banyan tree juzu! As I followed your path I realised that I have visited that upper level Shrine as well as Daisen-ji, lower down. But I have never read a description as lyrical or as fully explained as this entry here. Thank you very much. I will buy your book - of course - when it is published! Jim
As an Izumo resident, when I hear Izumo Fuji I think of the sake kura - https://izumofuji.com/about-en/. I had not realized that the name referred to Daisen though.
During golden week we cycled in the Yonago/Hoki area and had some good views of Daisen. We've never climbed it though because it seems to be quite a popular mountain and we lik eour mountains with fewer people. I guess the gyoja trail is less crowded but it seems like the top is often packed with people who take the other way up
Your story reminds me of when my wife and I climbed Fujisan last year. We did not start from the Fuji Sengen Jinja, but we did stop there before we set off, and we hiked from the Umagaeshi, which is where the oldtime travellers would get off their horses and start their climb. The first day was a very easy hike, and we passed many shrines and temples which must have been united back in the Shugendo days. Highly recommend to spend the extra day and get ones mind in the right mode to climb.
Thank you for writing about one of my favorite mountains in Japan. Mount Daisen has such majesty and beauty. Unfortunately, I have never hiked there. But I have had picnics on Daisen's slopes. undoubtedly, the best picnics in my life.
Kjeld - Picnics on Sanbe-san, too, are terrific...
I almost couldn't believe that you were writing about Daisen - Izumo-no-Fuji when seen from the northern Izumo part of Shimane-ken - in fact the perfect cone shape was viewed directly from my staff-room when I spent two years at Matsue-Shōgyō (Commercial) High 1991 & 1992. Or from southwestern Tottori-ken - Hōki-no-Fuji. The drive up to the town on Daisen - tall trees either side - there was something of north-western US appearance to my mind's eye - leading just east from Seattle towards Snoqualmie Falls? Anyway - in the springtime Daisen - new green leaves, yama-zakura - snow wrapped around tree trunks - or - as in the photos you posted - sliding down the steep valleys from those peaks. Or in the summer reaching above the humidity - or the golds and bronzes and crimsons of the autumn - always beautiful. I've not climbed to the top - to Misen - though friends regularly did so - and a Buddhist priest friend from nearby Hōfu declared that it had given him purpose when returning dejected and depressed from his priestly studies - on the verge of giving up. He decided to climb to the top - found his purpose - and when I met him 30+ years later - gave me one of his paintings of Daisen - his daily ritual was to begin the day with a watercolour painting of Daisen. I have it still. This was just weeks before I walked the 88-temple pilgrimage around Shikoku - and he gave me a juzu made from the seeds of the banyan tree beneath which Buddha achieved his enlightenment or satori. Which he had just brought back from India on one of his regular visits. In meeting him other uncanny connections came to light. I was walking the 88 because many years earlier I had joined a Rinzai sect Priest (and high school Principal) his wife - an English teacher colleague of mine - and their youngest son - of three - Tatsushi - then 12 - just in his first weeks of middle school - on a local Izumo section of a fuda-uchi pilgrimage - in honour of my colleague's mother not long passed away. Years later the son was adopted by his father's aunt and husband - a Shingon Priest - no sons, a daughter married to a businessman in Ōsaka - no one to take over the temple - Mine-ji (in Unnan-shi in Shimane-ken). Tatsushi went to add to his Rinzai studies to - in some senses - come up to speed on Shingon rituals with the man I had met near Hōfu - and who later officiated at Tatsushi's wedding. And changing his name to Matsuura Kaihen. But before that my wife and I had attended his ritual severance from his father's Rinzai sect temple - to the welcome ceremony and celebrations of his new Shingen temple life (a temple dating back to the 7th-century). Everything quite fantastic - yama-bushi in attendance, fire ceremonies etc., etc. Kaihen had walked the 88-temples and inspired me to do the same - and it was to Mine-ji that I went upon completing the 88-temples - and left there my hat and my staff and my banyan tree juzu! As I followed your path I realised that I have visited that upper level Shrine as well as Daisen-ji, lower down. But I have never read a description as lyrical or as fully explained as this entry here. Thank you very much. I will buy your book - of course - when it is published! Jim
As an Izumo resident, when I hear Izumo Fuji I think of the sake kura - https://izumofuji.com/about-en/. I had not realized that the name referred to Daisen though.
During golden week we cycled in the Yonago/Hoki area and had some good views of Daisen. We've never climbed it though because it seems to be quite a popular mountain and we lik eour mountains with fewer people. I guess the gyoja trail is less crowded but it seems like the top is often packed with people who take the other way up
Your story reminds me of when my wife and I climbed Fujisan last year. We did not start from the Fuji Sengen Jinja, but we did stop there before we set off, and we hiked from the Umagaeshi, which is where the oldtime travellers would get off their horses and start their climb. The first day was a very easy hike, and we passed many shrines and temples which must have been united back in the Shugendo days. Highly recommend to spend the extra day and get ones mind in the right mode to climb.
“When I hear things like “old trail historically used by pilgrims” my sense of curiosity starts tingling.”
Put it on a trucker hat, a t-shirt or, at least, in the email signature?
Thanks for the trip up the mountain and putting me onto Sugendo. Always a pleasure to read and learn. 🙌
Magical and mystical in equal measure