Mount Mani

What is Mount Mani?

Mount Mani (摩尼山, Mani-san) is a 357-meter sacred mountain of the Tendai school in Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture, opened as a place of worship by the late Heian period and forming the precinct of Maniji Temple, and it was registered as a Registered Monument (Place of Scenic Beauty) on October 3, 2016.

It is also called Kiken-zan, after the temple's mountain name. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the registered area as 367,296 square meters, a sweep of ground that takes in the temple buildings on the lower slope, the old approach path, the graves of past abbots, and the Oku-no-in and Tateiwa near the summit.

In the agency's words, Mount Mani ranks with Daisen and Mitokusan as one of the key Tendai mountains of Tottori Prefecture. For centuries the people of Inaba, the old province here, believed that the souls of the dead paused on Mount Mani before setting out for the far shore.

Why Mount Mani was registered

Mount Mani was registered as a natural place of scenic beauty. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singled out two things: the strange rock scenery of the Oku-no-in, made up of huge boulders and rock shelters, and the view from Washigamine, also called Tateiwa, over the Sea of Japan and the Tottori Sand Dunes. Tateiwa has long been loved as the best-known lookout in the area. The many stone Buddhist figures scattered over the mountain are cited as adding a character of their own.

The agency also describes the mountain's makeup. Mount Mani rests on dikes and volcanic necks of Neogene andesite and is clothed in natural forest of deciduous broadleaf and evergreen trees. Near the summit, outcrops of tuff break the surface as giant boulders, and these shape the Oku-no-in landscape.

A legend explains the name. The temple chronicle of 1683 says the monk Ennin, back from Tang China, was struck by the summit's form, its peaks parted like the eight petals of a lotus, and founded a temple there. Taishakuten, who lives in the palace of Kiken on the peak of the cosmic mountain Sumeru, was said to have descended onto Tateiwa holding a mani jewel, and so the temple became Kiken-zan Maniji.

Excavation shows that Mount Mani was in religious use by the late Heian period at the latest. Tottori University of Environmental Studies dug the Oku-no-in site in 2010 and concluded that a temple compound was laid out there from the late 10th century onward. According to the agency, the builders hollowed rock shelters and caves into the towering boulders, cut terraces and steps, and raised halls on stilts against the cliffs (kakezukuri).

What to see on Mount Mani

The highlights of Mount Mani lie up the trails beyond the precinct of Maniji Temple. The temple's website says paths lead from the precinct to Tateiwa, the Oku-no-in and the Sai-no-kawara. It describes Tateiwa as the former site of a bell tower and a founders' hall, the Oku-no-in as a cave, and the Sai-no-kawara as the site of a former two-story gate.

Tateiwa (Washigamine) is the mountain's great viewpoint, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs includes a photograph of the Sea of Japan seen from it in its database. With the sea and the Tottori Sand Dunes laid out below, you understand how close this sacred mountain stands to the dunes.

At the Oku-no-in, look closely at the rock itself. The hollowed shelters and the terraces and steps cut into the stone are the clues that halls once stood here. A 2015 survey report notes that the Enma hall and the founders' hall were moved from the summit down to the temple precinct after the Second World War, and that old timbers from the mountaintop buildings were reused in their porches.

The stone figures along the stepped approach and the trails are part of what the registration recognizes, so take your time on the way up and down.

Visiting Mount Mani

Mount Mani is entered through the precinct of Maniji Temple, which the temple's website says is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The trails follow natural ground, so bring shoes with good grip and some water, and take care on the rocks after rain.

Neither the temple's website nor the city's tourism pages give walking times to Tateiwa or the Oku-no-in, or say whether hikers need to notify the temple. Ask at the temple office about trail conditions before heading up. Directions and general visiting information are on the Maniji Temple page.