Holy Trekking Through Snow

A week ago, I went to Yamagata prefecture (west of Miyagi) to hike Dewa Sanzan, one of the holiest places in Northern Japan. Dewa Sanzan consists of 3 mountains especially sacred to a particular religious sect. The three mountains represent birth, death, and rebirth.

We started on Saturday with Gassan, by far the largest of the three at approximately 1800 meters. (Of course, in Japan usually you drive halfway up the mountain to get to the trailhead). The day was very hot and humid, but Gassan still has quite a bit of snow in many places. Our first encounter with a patch of snow coincided with heavy fog drifting over us so that it seemed like we were walking around in a great void, in an abyss surrounded by nothingness. The contrast in temperatures between the snowy spots and the non-snowy spots was stark and provided a nice relief from the normal balmy conditions of June.

As we were taking a group photo in front of the shrine at the top of the mountain, we heard several loud thunderclaps. Suddenly it began to rain. Painful, icy rain. We put on our rain gear and began to run/slide down the snowy mountainside. We must have looked insane to the people we passed—a dozen foreigners barreling down a mountain. The rain abated after about 10 minutes and the sun came back out in full force. The snowy patches still provided great opportunities to slide down the mountain, throw a few snowballs, and generally have the kind of fun that doesn’t normally happen in June.

We spent the night in the temple complex on top of Hagurosan. In the morning, we walked down the mountain and back up again. The trail is made of 2446 stone steps and is lined with huge trees.

In the afternoon we drove over to Yudonosan. On the way, we stopped at a temple that houses a mummified monk. He apparently took steps to mummify himself while still alive. We listened to a speech about him, but since my Japanese skills are rudimentary at best, I still don’t understand much about it. On top of Yudonosan we went to a special temple where we got blessed and walked barefoot to a spot with a good view. After the blessing we put our feet into a nice foot onsen, which in itself was a blessing after two days of hiking.

Yamagata is famous for cherries, so after a stop for some cherry flavored ice cream we drove back home to Miyagi.

This is the largest thatched roof in Japan.