Katashina · JP

Fudō-iwa (Immovable Rock, Mt. Hotaka)

Fudō-iwa (不動岩, "the Immovable Rock," also marked 不動岳, Fudō-dake) is a tooth of sheer grey rock that juts from the high ridge of Mt. Hotaka / 上州武尊山 (2,158 m), one of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains, on the border between Katashina village in Gunma's Tone District and the towns of Kawaba and Minakami. Reaching it means earning it: the approach is a long, stiff climb up an old mountain-worship ridge, and the rock-peak itself is a short, exposed scramble studded with fixed chains and a couple of truly narrow squeezes. For hikers it is the emotional climax of the route between the Katashina/Hanasaku side and the summits of 前武尊 (Mae-Hotaka) and 武尊山 — a place where the trail briefly stops being a path and becomes a rock climb with views down into forested valleys and out toward the Oze highlands. For all its drama it stays compact and reversible: there is a bypass around the peak for anyone who would rather admire the rock from below than climb it.