Autumn Feast

Autumn leaves at Tenkawa never let me down.

In a mountainous area lies a village of Tenkawa in Yoshino in southern part of Nara. It features mountain ranges starting from Mt. Yoshino to Omine mountain ranges in my previous post and a gorge with beautiful views of the emerald green water and surrounding foliage.

Emperor Temmu

Yoshino has also full of monuments of human history. Dating back

to 7th century, it was once a hiding place for Prince Oama, later

 he became Emperor Temmu (reign 673-686), who fought for a succession dispute against his nephew Prince Otomo at Jinshin War 

in 672.

Emperor Go-Daigo

Long after that in 14th century, Emperor Go-Daigo fled down toYoshino and set up the Southern Court among the mountain  of Yoshino in the hope for renewed lease on his reign  in Kyoto. That was a beginning of Nanboku-cho (Period of North and South Dynasties, 1336-1392). Hilly mountainous area made a natural fortress but this place led to the sea or the river to go around  in the south or in the east so that they could get the information with the help of Shugendo practitioners who were spreading nationwide. Here Tenkawa, there were warriors who were very supportive to the court. Though the emperor finished his life here longing for returning to Kyoto in vain.

There are many other historical events and figures involved the area in.

 From the gorge, we cimbed  観音峰 (mountain of Bodhisattva, Goddess of Mercy 1347m).  On the way up the top, there is a torii, where there used to be a shrine closely connected with Southern Court. You can see the fusion of Buddhism and ancient Shintoism here as well.

You can see the pointed rock mountain in the center of this picture over there? It is another peak of Mt. Inamura-ga-take called　Mt.Dainichi (right picture from my previous post) and on its left is Mt. Inamuragatake, which I climbed previous week, and then Mt. Sanjogatake.

It started  raining lightly and gray vapors were hovering among mountains. It is not so clear but you can see the houses of the village below at the forehead of this picture. It is Tenkawa village. The scenery looked quite different from colorful world  I saw on the way up here because of an overcast sky.

Climbing down  the mountain, gray vapors rose from the bottom and veiled the colorful mountains gently.

Tenkawa or Yoshino is my favorite place. I'd like to visit it again soon.