Mount Nantai

Mount Nantai, also called Mount Futara, is a 2,486-metre volcano above Nikkō in Shimotsuke Province, whose cone was worshipped from the Yayoi period as a go-shintai, a mountain itself housing the kami.

In the eighth century the Kegon monk Shōdō Shōnin made the first recorded ascent, founding Futarasan Shrine in 767 and its summit chapel, the Oku-no-miya, in 782; the old mountain cult merged with Buddhist Shugendō. The Engishiki of 927 records its shrine, and a middle shrine was raised on Lake Chuzenji in 1096.

After Sengoku warfare cost Futarasan Shrine its estates, the nearby Nikkō Tōshō-gū, mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, brought Tokugawa patronage: Hidetada rebuilt the main shrine in 1617, and the lakeside halls were rebuilt in 1699.