Mount Sanjogatake

Women cannot climb this mountain. Sanjogatake (1,719 m), the main peak of the northern Omine range and the place where Shugendo says it began, is closed to women for religious reasons all year, and the rule applies to visitors too. It is marked on the ground. At Seijo Ohashi bridge (also called Omine Ohashi), the trailhead above Dorogawa Onsen, the Nyonin Kekkai-mon, the women's boundary gate, stands beside a stone inscribed 'from here, the women's boundary'. There are similar gates on the other approaches, at Gobanseki, Renge-tsuji and Amidagamori. The Dorogawa tourism association says it is the only mountain in Japan still closed to women. Women who want an Omine summit can climb Inamuragatake next door, known as the women's Omine.

On top is Ominesan-ji, a temple to Zao Gongen, the same deity as in the Zao-do of Kimpusen-ji on Mount Yoshino. Tradition says En no Gyoja founded it in 672. The main hall was built in 1691 and later enlarged, and Tenkawa village calls it the highest Important Cultural Property building in Japan. Its doors open only between the opening ceremony on 3 May and the closing ceremony on 23 September, 143 days. Five temples, Ryusen-ji in Dorogawa and four on Mount Yoshino, keep the hall and run lodgings on the summit.

The path from Seijo Ohashi to the temple takes about three hours one way, and the tourism association puts the round trip at about 12 km and six hours. There are teahouses to rest at and a spring called Otasuke-mizu on the way. Near the summit are the training rocks: Kanekake-iwa, climbed on chains, and Nishi no Nozoki, where you are held by a rope and leaned out over a cliff. Both need a guide, arranged through the Ryusen-ji lodge. Expect groups in white with conch shells, and answer their 'Yo omairi' in kind.

Without a car the logistics are hard: a 70-minute bus to Dorogawa, then about an hour's walk to the trailhead. Stay in Dorogawa the night before.