05/08/2026
It's been a while since I went on any new adventures so yesterday I decided to hike the two peaks of Nijo-san.
With the Medake peak at 474m and the Odake peak at 517m, it is the smallest mountain in the Kongo Range but also one of the most interesting.
I started from Taimadera Station in Katsuragi, Nara Prefecture and made my way first up the smaller Medake via a trail that began at the small temple of Yusenji.
The path was quite picturesque as it ran alongside a small stream for much of the route however, that did also mean that the humidity was brutal.
I passed an observation point that had an excellent view out over Osaka, and in particular the southern part of the Kongo range from Iwawaki-san to the coast which you cannot easily see from other mountains.
The summit of Odake is extremely interesting as it contains a small shrine, a Shugendo sutra mound and an Imperial grave.
Katsuragi Futakami-jinja enshrines two Kami, Okunitama-no-Kami and Takemikazuchi-no-Okami. The current shrine is a concrete wall surrounding a Sakaki tree with an earlier shrine destroyed by fire in the 1970s.
Next to the shrine is the Nijosan Daranihon, the 26th sutra mound of the Katsuragi 28 Shuku Shugendo pilgrimage.
And just a short distance along the path is the grave of Prince Otsu. A son of 7th century Emperor Tenmu, he was a popular figure who was accused of plotting a rebellion and forced to commit seppuku at the age of 24.
After leaving Odake, I made my way back towards Medake and this time headed up towards the summit where there is a large sundial and a nice view of nearby Yamato-Katsuragisan.
I descended down a steeper path back towards my starting point but before I left, I stopped by the Iwaya.
This is a small cave carved into the rock and containing a small, rough stone pagoda. In the Kofun Period, this place was used to mine the stone used to make stone coffins of the era and was later converted into a cave temple.
#日本 #南天苑 #奥河内 #河内長野 #大阪 #奈良
