Qualla: Mount Nasu: Five Peaks and Infinite Hell

Mount Nasu: Five Peaks and Infinite Hell: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit uraomote_yamaneko, CC BY-SA 3.0. The sulfur hits you before the summit does. Rising from the Nasu Highlands in the northeastern corner of Nikko National Park, a cluster of volcanic peaks collectively known as Nasu-dake has been venting heat and toxic gas for 600,000 years. Only one summit remains active today -- Chausu Peak, whose crown of fumaroles still pushes sulfurous gases at temperatures reaching 90 degrees Celsius through cracks in the andesite. The Japanese call this field of hissing vents Mugen Jigoku: Infinite Hell. It is an apt name for a place where the poet Matsuo Basho once noted that dead butterflies and bees lay so thick on the ground you could not see the sand beneath. Yet the same volcanic violence that produces Infinite Hell also feeds more than 150 hot springs across the Nasu Highlands below, making this landscape one of Japan's great contradictions -- a place that kills and heals in equal measure.

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Image: uraomote_yamaneko | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Nasu: Five Peaks and Infinite Hell: The Five Peaks of Nasu

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mass Ave 975, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Nasu volcanic group -- known collectively as Nasu Go-dake, the Five Peaks of Nasu -- forms a line of summits running roughly north to south. Sanbonyari Peak stands tallest at 1,917 meters, edging out Chausu at 1,915 meters by the slimmest of margins. Asahi Peak follows at 1,8...

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Image: Mass Ave 975 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Nasu: Five Peaks and Infinite Hell: A Volcano Still Breathing

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Chausu Peak began erupting roughly 16,000 years ago, building itself through successive layers of lava and ash. Its most violent episode came between 1408 and 1410, when sustained eruptions formed the hardened andesite dome that shapes the summit today and reportedly killed more ...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Nasu: Five Peaks and Infinite Hell: Riding the Ropeway to the Clouds

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Koda6029, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Nasu Ropeway carries visitors from a parking area near the mountain's base up to the Ninth Station on Chausu's flank, a ride that covers roughly 800 meters of elevation through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Kanto-Tohoku borderlands. From the upper station, the s...

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Image: Koda6029 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mount Nasu: Five Peaks and Infinite Hell: Waters That Remember Fire

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Beh, CC BY-SA 3.0. The same geological forces that built the Nasu peaks also created one of Japan's most celebrated hot spring regions. More than 150 onsen have been discovered across the Nasu Highlands, their waters heated by the volcanic plumbing beneath the surface. Nasu Onsen and Shiobara Onsen...

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Image: Beh | CC BY-SA 3.0