Kinkasan Island

Kinkasan rises from the sea off the Oshika Peninsula, accessible by ferry from Ishinomaki, and carries a reputation as one of Tohoku's most sacred places. The island's Koganeyama Shrine, believed established in the eighth century, was built on one of Japan's earliest gold mines, and a long-standing tradition holds that three consecutive annual pilgrimages will resolve all financial troubles. Visitors wash coins in the natural spring or stay overnight at the shrine's lodgings. Away from the shrine, a hiking trail climbs through beech and zelkova forest to the 445-meter summit of Mt. Kinka, where hundreds of wild deer and monkeys roam freely.