1 / 9Mt. Haguro five-story pagodaPhoto: Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY 2.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 9 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
A 650-year-old National Treasure pagoda alone in a cedar forest at the foot of the 2,446-step stairway — one of Japan’s great sights. Reach it by JR to Tsuruoka and the Zuishinmon bus on 8h+ calls (see the complete guide), or by a pre-booked car.
- This needs 7 hr, so it only fits a 9-hour call or longer. On a shorter one it will cost you the ship, not the view.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Mt. Haguro five-story pagoda is famous
Haguro is one of the three sacred mountains of Dewa, a centre of Shugendo mountain asceticism for over a thousand years. Its five-storey pagoda, rebuilt around 1372, stands alone in a cedar forest at the foot of 2,446 stone steps, with no other building near it. It is a National Treasure.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~1.5h with the shuttleSankyo Warehouses
Nine rice storehouses from 1893 under a double row of zelkova trees — the image of Kitamaebune merchant Sakata, and still the town’s best photograph.
See the detail
Do · ~1.5hSomaro maiko performance
Somaya, a high-class restaurant for over a century, restored as Somaro in 2000, where Sakata maiko dance in the afternoon — the rare place outside Kyoto to see it, at a fraction of Kyoto’s price.
See the detail
Eat · ~45minKaisen-don at Donya Tobishima
Fishermen’s seafood bowls inside the working harbor market — open from seven in the morning, which suits a cruise clock perfectly..
See the detail