Mt. Miyohoji (235 m; 771')
Miyohoji-yama is a few hundred meters from my apartment. It's about a ten minute walk to the shrine at the bottom, and then another 20 or 25 minutes to the top, a climb of 190 m (620'). There's a small shrine at the top; about 100 small Jiso statues ("Ojisosan") watch over you as climb the main trail. The shrine, shrine, and trail are likely to have been here for 1000-1400 years (the buildings aren't that old; the statues range from tens to many hundreds of years old).
)
Hakusan Shrine and Miyohoji-cho, at the bottom of the trail
)
)
)
Along the path at the foot of the mountain
)
)
)
Ojisosan Statues on the trail up
)
About halfway up, there is a spring, with a small ladle tied to the fence. It's to cleanse yourself as you approach the shrine at the top. The fence was destroyed and the spring largely covered by a falling tree the day this photo was taken, or the next. I was the last person to see it like this.)
)
A few meters from the top stands a small shrine. It contains a few Buddhist carvings, remains of previous offerings, and two stone lamps. Although quite old and run-down, it's beautiful in every season. These winter scenes were shot in the middle of the blizzard of January 2001, which left about four feet of snow on central Takefu and close to six around Go-chu (with drifts to well over twice that).)
The view from the top
){kind=link}
)
)
)
)
Manyo (5.5 km away)
Sunset
795 m Mt. Hino (close); 1256 m Mt. Kanmuri (far)
Crows harassing hawk; around sunset, thousands of crows circle the peak of Mt. Miyohoji before settling into the nearby trees.