Mount Yoshino
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- In 1594 the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi held a lavish cherry-viewing party at Yoshino with a retinue said to number about 5,000, hosting a tea ceremony at Yoshimizu Shrine.
- In 1336 Emperor Go-Daigo fled Kyoto with the imperial regalia and set up his rival Southern Court at Yoshino, where he died in 1339.
- According to tradition, the fugitive hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune hid at Yoshino in the winter of 1185 and parted here from his beloved, the dancer Shizuka Gozen.
- According to legend, Prince Ōama dreamt at Yoshino of cherries in full bloom in midwinter and was inspired to seize the throne in 672, becoming Emperor Tenmu.
- The cherry was held so sacred that, by tradition, even dead cherry wood was not burned as firewood, and breaking off a branch was said to cost a finger.
- Shugendō tradition holds that En no Gyōja carved the first image of the deity Zaō Gongen from cherry wood, which is how the tree became sacred here.
- Before and during the Second World War much of the upper cherry forest gave way to cedar and cypress; replanting since 2010 has restored thousands of cherry trees.
- The Ōmine pilgrim route once counted up to 120 sacred stations, later fixed at 75, and six of them lie within Yoshino itself.
- Yoshino was designated both a national Place of Scenic Beauty and a Historic Site in 1924, and in 1990 was chosen as one of Japan's 100 best cherry blossom spots.
Why it is worth it
Mount Yoshino is not a single peak but a ridge running about eight kilometres south from the Yoshino River in central Nara Prefecture towards the Ōmine mountains, lined with temples, shrines and a long village street. It has been Japan's most celebrated place for cherry blossom for over a thousand years: its flowering was praised in the 10th-century poetry anthology Kokin Wakashū and in verses by the 12th-century poet-monk Saigyō, and it inspired the kabuki classic Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees. Today the slopes hold an estimated 30,000 trees, mostly a white-flowered variety of wild mountain cherry.
The blossoms are traditionally divided into four groves by altitude: the lower, middle, upper and inner "thousand" (shimo, naka, kami and oku senbon). Because they climb the mountain, they open in sequence, from late March into mid-April near the bottom and into late April at the top, so the bloom moves uphill over several weeks. The sight of whole hillsides in flower at once has its own name, hitome senbon, "a thousand trees at a glance".
The trees are here because the mountain is sacred. Yoshino is the heart of Shugendō, the ascetic mountain religion that blends Buddhism and native belief, and the cherry is the sacred tree of its principal deity, Zaō Gongen; pilgrims offered saplings as votive gifts. Kinpusen-ji is the main temple, and the Ōmine Okugakemichi, a rugged pilgrim trail said to have been founded by the 7th-century ascetic En no Gyōja, runs from here south to the Kumano shrines. Since 2004 these sites have been part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range World Heritage Site.
Outside blossom season Yoshino is quiet, and its trails, temple halls and views across forested valleys reward a full day's walk; longer trails continue to Kōyasan and Hongū. Local specialities include kudzu sweets and kakinoha-zushi, sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves. In peak bloom crowds are heavy, so start early.
Getting there
Kintetsu limited express trains run from Osaka Abenobashi to Yoshino Station in about 1 hour 15 minutes. From Senbonguchi, beside the station, the Yoshino Ropeway climbs to the edge of the town in about three minutes, or you can walk up. The nearest airport is Osaka Itami (ITM), about 62 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Mount Yoshino is the general name for the mountain ridge that stretches from the south bank of the Yoshino River in the town of Yoshino central Nara Prefecture, Japan, to the Ōmine Mountains, stretching for about eight kilometers from north-to-south, or the broader name of the area dotted with shrines and temples, centered around Kinpusen-ji Temple.
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