Mt. Haguro Five Story Pagoda in Snow | Dewa Sanzan Yamagata | Kiwi Yamabushi

Mt. Haguro's Five Story Pagoda is an architectural masterpiece. That such a majestic structure can stand in the middle of a forest in the middle of snow country for over 650 years is tantamount to both the ingenuity of the designers and builders in charge of constructing it, and the generations and generations of locals who looked after the pagoda over the centuries.

Rumoured to have originally been built between 931 and 938 by a powerful samurai, Taira no Masakado, the current iteration of Mt. Haguro's Five Story Pagoda was rebuilt in 1372 by then chief priest Daihoji Masauji according to the chronicles of Mt. Haguro. The structure is a famous and rare example of Buddhist building techniques that survived the widespread destruction of Buddhist artifacts during the Meiji Restoration (1868 onwards), whereas temples and other structures in the vicinity weren't so lucky (see my video on how Japanese people can be Shinto and Buddhist at the same time for the explanation).

Although at 29.2m the tower is not particularly tall compared to other five-story pagodas in Japan, there are several other architectural features that make it stand out. The easiest to see is that the roofs are all built to the same size so that only the top roof has to counteract the massive amounts of snow that fall in winter each year. Every year since the tower has been built, the people of Toge village have laboriously climbed through the middle to the top to push off at times up to five metres of snow off.

Now see the pagoda in all its snowy glory with this 4K video taken in January 2021.

Find out more about Mt. Haguro's Five Story Pagoda in this article (written by yours truly):
https://dewasanzan.com/mt-haguro-five...

And more on Mt. Haguro:
https://www.dewasanzan.com/mthaguro

And a climbing guide to Mt. Haguro here:
https://www.timbunting.com/haguro

Other videos on Mt. Haguro and the Dewa Sanzan:

The Dewa Sanzan's "Mountain of Death": Mt. Gassan
   • Japan's Mountain of Death: Mt. Gassan  

The Hidden Side of Haguro
   • MUST-SEE mountain in north Japan  

The Widow’s Peak: Mt. Ubagatake of Tohoku, North Japan
   • The Dark Backstory of Japan’s Widow’s Peak  

Japanese are Shinto AND Buddhist? How? Haguro Shugendo and religion in Japan with the Dewa Sanzan.
   • Japanese are Shinto AND Buddhist? How? Hag...  

Mt. Haguro Solo Hike
   • Mt. Haguro Solo Hike │ Japan’s Sacred Dewa...  

Yamabushi-related videos:

Becoming Yamabushi
   • Unraveling the Mysterious World of Yamabus...  

My Yamabushi Philosophy:
   • Want to Master Japan's Yamabushi Way? Watc...  

How much is a Horagai Yamabushi conch?
   • How much is a Horagai Conch? Buying a Hora...  

Playing the Yamabushi Conch:
   • Uncover the Secrets of Playing the Horagai...  

I blog daily about my Yamabushi lifestyle at https://www.timbunting.com/blog and post regularly on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok all @kiwiyamabushi.

Support my work on Patreon:
  / kiwiyamabushi​  

Join authentic Yamabushi training with Yamabushido. Visit https://www.Yamabushido.jp​​

Learn about the Dewa Sanzan (where I became an official Yamabushi) with this website I made:
https://www.dewasanzan.com​

Learn about becoming a Yamabushi in this video:
   • Unraveling the Mysterious World of Yamabus...  ​​

And my most viewed video is about how Japanese people can be Shinto and Buddhist at the same time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKo0t...

Any questions or comments please just ask! I also recently started selling Horagai, the Yamabushi conches, if you want one, reach out :)

#hagurosan #tohoku #japan #mthaguro #fivestorypagoda