Mt. Kasagatake

Mt. Kasagatake rises to 2,898 meters on the Gifu side of Chubusangaku National Park and takes its name from its conical shape resembling a traditional kasa hat. The first recorded ascent was in 1683 by the wandering Buddhist sculptor Enku, who carved thousands of wooden Buddha figures to comfort people he encountered on his travels. Walter Weston, a British missionary, made the first recorded climb from outside Japan in 1894, an ascent that helped spark recreational mountaineering in the country. The Kasa-shindo Trail from Shin-Hotaka Onsen takes just over nine hours to the summit, where a cross-section of volcanic rock layers from eruptions 63 million years ago is visible near the top.