"Dancing Crane Mountain": Maizuru-yama in Tendo, Yamagata

And Daily Yamabushi Posts for May 29 to June 4, 2026

I climbed Maizuru-yama in Tendo the other day. It was quite literally a walk in the park. I originally intended for this week’s post to be about the experience, but I completely underestimated the sheer amount of stuff to write about.

I would have passed Maizuru-yama at least 50 or so times over the years. It just stands there, a mound of greenery in the middle of Tendo city, reminding me of Shinobu-yama in Fukushima City. As a castle mountain, it is also similar in story to Shiro-yama in neighbouring Yamagata City. Except, this mountain is responsible for Tendo city producing 95% (!) of the Shogi chess pieces in Japan. Can’t say that about many other mountains…

Anyway, here are some photos I took of the mountain, one from April, more from the weekend:

The cherry blossoms of Maizuru-yama in spring.

The same view over the weekend.

Maizuru-yama, Atago Jinja, the main shrine is on the left peak, and there is a lookout on the right peak.

This guy was blocking the path, but I found a (yamabushi) way around him.

The view from the western lookout.

Atago Jinja.

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Daily Yamabushi Posts for May 29 to June 4, 2026

This photo is unedited. The mountains of Yamagata are breathtaking any time of year.

Here are my Daily Yamabushi posts for the past week. Get more Daily Yamabushi posts at timbunting.com/daily-yamabushi. Discover more Japan essays and daily insights in the Kiwi Yamabushi Substack Archive, or follow my writing over on Medium.com.

1. The Fall

2. It’s a Start

3. Feed The Machine First

4. Try Me

5. On The Horizon

6. Temporary Permanence

7. In and Out