The Sesshō-seki (“Killing Stone”) Area

A wooden boardwalk circles a small valley at the foot of Mt. Chausu near Yumoto Onsen. The rocky floor is known as Sai no Kawara, named for the Buddhist realm where souls of children who died young stack stones only to have a demon scatter them each night. Jizo statues wearing red bibs line the path, placed by relatives praying for deceased children. A fourteenth-century priest named Kyoden reportedly fell into a volcanic eruption here after cursing his mother, and memorial statues have stood here since 1720. In the Edo period, yunohana mineral crystals were harvested from steam vents and used to pay taxes in place of rice.