Qualla: Mount Kurama

Mount Kurama: Introduction

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In the year 1174, a boy named Ushiwakamaru was supposed to be studying sutras. The son of an assassinated lord, he had been sent to the monastery on Mount Kurama by his father's enemies in the Taira clan, who wanted to ensure the child grew up as a monk and never a warrior. Instead, the boy slipped into the forests each night. According to legend, he found Sojobo -- the king of the tengu, a supernatural race of mountain-dwelling beings with long noses and fierce combat skills -- and convinced the demon lord to train him in the art of the sword. That boy became Minamoto no Yoshitsune, one of the most celebrated warriors in Japanese history, and the mountain where he trained has never lost its reputation for the uncanny.

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Image: Public domain

Mount Kurama: The Demon King's Domain

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Maarten Heerlien from Voorschoten, The Netherlands, CC BY 2.0. Mount Kurama rises 584 meters north of central Kyoto, its slopes thick with cedar and cypress that filter daylight into dim green corridors. Kurama-dera, the temple near its summit, was founded in 770 by the monk Gantei, a disciple of the Chinese priest Jianzhen. The temple was o...

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Image: Maarten Heerlien from Voorschoten, The Netherlands | CC BY 2.0

Mount Kurama: Twenty-One Days on the Mountain

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In 1922, a man named Mikao Usui climbed Mount Kurama seeking spiritual transformation. He fasted and meditated for twenty-one days near the summit at a site called Osugi Gongen, beside a great sacred tree believed to be an incarnation of the deity Maoson. According to Reiki tradi...

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Image: Public domain

Mount Kurama: Fire in the Valley

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Roessler, CC BY-SA 3.0. Every October 22, the village at Kurama's base erupts in flame. The Kurama Fire Festival -- Kurama no Hi Matsuri -- is one of Kyoto's three great festivals, a spectacle that begins at sunset and rages until midnight. Hundreds of villagers carry pine torches through the narrow str...

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Image: Thomas Roessler | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Kurama: A Mountain Walk Between Worlds

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Roessler, CC BY-SA 3.0. The hiking trail over Mount Kurama connects the village of Kurama on the west with the shrine village of Kibune on the east, a walk of roughly ninety minutes through some of the most atmospheric forest near Kyoto. The path passes through Kurama-dera's compound, climbing past towe...

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Image: Thomas Roessler | CC BY-SA 3.0