Mount Yoshino

Location

Yoshino Town, Nara Prefecture

Stories and legends

The legend of En no Gyōja founding Shugendo is bound up with the Zaō Gongen faith of the Zaōdō hall; the saying that the cherries are sacred trees, planted as offerings into a forest, belongs to faith tradition.

History and context

Mount Yoshino's cherries are mostly yamazakura (シロヤマザクラ, wild mountain cherries); from the middle ages, believers planted them as offerings and generations protected them, reaching today's scale of about 30,000 trees. The four "thousand-tree" zones — lower, middle, upper, and inner — bloom in sequence by altitude, so the season, usually late March to mid-April, is longer than on the plains. Mount Yoshino and Kinpusen-ji were inscribed in 2004 as part of the World Heritage "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range." Toyotomi Hideyoshi's grand flower-viewing party here in 1594 is a famous historical event.

Local life

Yoshino's ethos is "cherries are faith": the cherry is the sacred tree of Zaō Gongen, and blossom viewing and pilgrimage to the Shugendo holy site are one and the same act. The mountain is a narrow ridge town; ryokan, tofu shops, and kuzu (kudzu starch) shops line the slopes, and outside blossom season it returns to a quiet mountain village. In the Nanbokuchō period the Southern Court's Emperor Go-Daigo held his palace here, giving Yoshino an extra layer of dynastic pathos that mirrors the cherries' brief beauty.

Customs

In blossom season there is a tradition of offering and protecting cherry trees; the old rule for climbing pilgrims was to worship at the main hall of Kinpusen-ji before viewing the blossoms.

Beliefs

A core holy site of Shugendo, the syncretic mountain faith (Zaō Gongen belief), with an extremely strong religious character; Kinpusen-ji is one of Shugendo's head temples.

Local etiquette

Observe no-photo areas inside temples and do not disturb services with blossom-viewing noise; mountain cherries are sacred trees — breaking branches is strictly forbidden; the mountain roads are narrow with one-way traffic controls, and driving in blossom season jams very easily.

Visiting notes

Best at the full bloom of Naka-Senbon (usually early April); from Kintetsu Yoshino Station take the cable car or bus up — in blossom season walking up can actually be faster; to avoid crowds take the first train on a weekday or stay on the mountain for the early morning; Oku-Senbon blooms latest and has the fewest visitors.

What to eat nearby

Persimmon-leaf sushi (柿の葉寿司, mackerel / salmon sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves, a Yoshino specialty); kuzu starch and kuzukiri noodles (葛きり, Yoshino hon-kuzu); kusamochi (草餅, mugwort rice cakes); mountain-vegetable tofu dishes; cherry-season limited wagashi

Old shops along the Naka-Senbon road, the approach shops at Shimo-Senbon, in front of Yoshino Station

The persimmon leaf on the sushi is packaging and aroma — do not eat it; peel it off and eat the sushi; kuzukiri is dipped in kuromitsu syrup and should be eaten while still cold and slippery

Persimmon-leaf sushi sets 1,500–2,500 yen (about 70–118 yuan, for reference only); shōjin / tofu kaiseki from 3,500 yen (from about 165 yuan, for reference only)

Mountain restaurants fill by 11:00 in blossom season — eat first or bring your own onigiri; for kuzu souvenirs, note the price difference between pure "Yoshino hon-kuzu" and starch-blended products.