Hasetsune Course: Mt Otake to Mt Mitake

Distance	3.9K
Elevation Gain	128m
Elevation Drop	491m

The long road down to the finish starts on Mt Otake

The route down 大岳山 – Mt Otake starts with a short 80m drop to the main site of the 大岳神社 – Otake Shrine. The stone steps up to the complex from the torii can be slippery, so watch out. There is an old mountain hut in disrepair just below the shrine. Off to the right from the hut’s landing is a public toilet facility. The toilets are in good repair.

Otake Shrine

The shrine just below the peak of Mt Otake has a few bits of lore associated with it.

Its origin story is also tied with 日本武尊 – Yamato Takeru. We already know that he passed through the area during his eastern expedition. It seems that the villagers near Mt Otake took such a liking to him that they build this shrine in his honor.
A few hundred years later during the 奈良時代 – Nara Period, the 聖武天皇 – Emperor Shomu enshrined some deity from the 吉野山 – Yoshino area near the old capital.
A millennia later, the徳川幕府 – Tokugawa shogunate prayed at Otake Shrine for the care of 江戸城 – Edo Castle, the current Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
The shrine itself is notable for being a powerful Kanto presence in the 修験道 – shugendo mountain worship, world.
Along with 三峰神社 – Mitsumine Shrine on the other side of 雲取山 – Mt Kumotori and 御嶽神社 – Mitake Shrine at the end of this segment, Otake shrine reveres the wolf deity.
Finally, as with a few sites in the area, Mt Otake is associated with the Demon Slayer manga. 嘴平伊之助 – Hashibira Inosuke – the guy with the boar mask, grew up on the mountain.

A Rocky Start

The course moves to the left after you move through the torii. The course is rocky over the next 600 meters, with chains in many places to help with treacherous traverses. After a runnable half kilometer the trail veers left. Here it starts a sharper decline down to a shelter and, just beyond, another on-trail water source at about the 2.2k mark.

From the water spot, the trail is mostly runnable if you have the legs for the next 1.5K. There are more toilet facilities along the way.

A big tree purported to be over 350 years old sits on a right hand turn at the 3.3K mark. There is a memorial to 長谷川恒男 – Hasegawa Tsuneyoshi after another 300 meters on the trail as you make your way into Mitake town.

Mitakesan Town

Mitakesan town is one of the coolest spots in Tokyo. Life pretty much revolves around tourism for the Mitake Shrine, and the little shopping street at the foot of the shine has a real 昭和時代 – Showa feel to it. Often next to the souvenirs on the tables the proprietors will hawk local mountain vegetables, including fresh wasabi grown on the mountain-slope farms on the 奥多摩町 – Okutama side of Otake.