嵐山

About this photo

This photo shows a stone lantern and the river at Arashiyama in Kyoto, with the mountain rising beyond. It appears in Kyoto Meishocho (Album of Famous Places in Kyoto), published in 1907.

Arashiyama is a mountain 382 meters high that rises beside Togetsukyo Bridge. The river is called the Oi River above Togetsukyo and the Katsura River below it. At the end of the 13th century, the retired emperor Kameyama is said to have moved several hundred cherry trees here from Yoshino in Nara, and later the Zen master Muso Kokushi is also said to have planted wild cherries from Yoshino. On the mountain is a hall dedicated to Zao Gongen, a mountain deity, who also appears in the noh play Arashiyama, written in the 15th century by Konparu Zenpo. In the early Meiji era, under an order that made temples and shrines hand their land over to the state, the mountain became national property, and it is now the Arashiyama National Forest.

It was designated a national Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty in 1927 and a scenic conservation zone in 1930. Today it is on both the list of Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots and the list of Japan's Top 100 Autumn Leaf Spots.

Glossary