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PROMINENCE
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JAPAN  ULTRA-PROMINENCES

21 Mountains with prominence of 1,500m (4,921 ft.) or greater

Welcome to the first-ever listing of Japan's major mountains based on prominence.  The prominence of a mountain is measured as the elevation difference between its summit and the highest saddle that connects it to higher ground.  For more information, please refer to the Peaklist home page above.

Intensive map and computer data analysis reveals that there are 21 summits in Japan with a prominence of 1,500 meters or greater.  These are the so-called "ultra-prominences" which we have cataloged for the entire world.    The Japanese ultra-prominences include 14 summits on the island of Honshu, two summits each on Hokkaido and Shikoku, one summit on Kyushu, and the high points of two outlying volcanic islands at opposite ends of the country, Rishiri-to (north of Hokkaido) and Yaku-shima (south of Kyushu).

Click here for the Map of Japan's Ultra-Prominences

List compiled 2004 by Aaron Maizlish, based on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) analysis by Jonathan de Ferranti.  We welcome the addition of any further data and references to these peaks.  Thank you for visiting.

Andy Martin is very interested in gathering information about people who have completed (or nearly completed) the peaks on this list.   Please contact andyadit(at)aol.com if you have information about possible completers.

revision:  January 20, 2005
Rank
 Summit Name
 Elevation
(m.)
 Prominence
(m.)
 Saddle
(m.)
 Latitude
 Longitude
 Elevation
(ft.)
 Prominence
(ft.)

1 Fuji-san  (Mt. Fuji, Fujiyama) 3775.6 3776 0 N 35º21'36" E 138º43'33" 12387 12387
2 Hotaka-dake 3190.0 2307 883 N 36º17'21" E 137º38'53" 10466 7569
3 Asahi-dake
2290.3 2290 0 N 43º39'49" E 142º51'15" 7514 7514
4 Kita-dake 3192.4 2239 953 N 35º40'27" E 138º14'12" 10474 7347
5 Tengu-dake
 1982.0 1982 0 N 33º46'00" E 133º06'51" 6503 6503
6 Miyanoura-dake  (HP Yakushima) 1936.0 1936 0 N 30º20'09" E 130º30'09" 6352 6352
7 Aka-dake 2899.2 1916 983 N 35º58'15" E 138º22'09" 9512 6287
8 Haku-san 2702.2 1897 805 N 36º09'15" E 136º46'12" 8865 6224
9 Chokai-san 2236.0 1891 345 N 39º05'57" E 140º03'03" 7336 6204
10 Yotei-zan 1898.0 1878 20 N 42º49'36" E 140º48'41" 6227 6161
11 Kuju-san 1791.0 1791 0 N 33º04'54" E 131º14'24" 5876 5876
12 Komaga-take 2956.0 1751 1205 N 35º47'21" E 137º48'12" 9698 5745
13 Iwate-san 2038.2 1745 293 N 39º51'12" E 141º00'03" 6687 5726
14 Hakken-ga-take 1914.6 1732 183 N 34º10'27" E 135º54'24" 6281 5681
15 Rishiri-zan  (HP Rishiri-to) 1721.0 1721 0 N 45º10'48" E 141º14'21" 5646 5646
16 Ontake-san 3067.0 1712 1355 N 35º53'36" E 137º28'45" 10062 5617
17 Hiuchi-yama 2461.8 1637 825 N 36º55'21" E 138º04'00" 8077 5371
18 Daisen 1729.0 1634 95 N 35º22'15" E 133º32'21" 5673 5361
19 Oku-shirane-san 2577.6 1613 965 N 36º47'54" E 139º22'27" 8457 5291
20 Dainichi-dake 2128.0 1593 535 N 37º49'57" E 139º39'33" 6982 5226
21 Tsurugi-san 1954.7 1540 415 N 33º51'15" E 134º05'33" 6413 5051


Global notes: 

Summit Names:  English translations in this first edition were taken from the GNIS database and corrected with the aid of commercial hiking guides.  All of these summits are included on the list of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains, the Nihon Hyaku-Meizan by Kyuya Fukada.

Elevation:  Elevations are from Japanese topographic map series 1:25,000, published by the Geographical Survey Institute, in all cases 2000 and later.  Because of the high degree of accuracy of these surveys, we felt confident in including the summit elevation to the decimeter (unlike most other national surveys which are presumed to have an uncertainty of one meter or greater.)  The reader will note that some of the elevations on this list are several meters higher than widely reported elevations.  In several cases, the topographic map shows a second spot elevation (typically along a crater rim) that is higher than the official benchmark.  Most elevation tables only list the benchmark elevation.

Saddle:  Saddles were derived through SRTM analysis, and confirmed on the 1:25,000 topographic map series.  The saddle elevation provided is interpolated from the contour interval of the map; which is 5m in five cases and 10m in nine cases.  Thus these prominence figures for the most part have an error bar of ±2.5m and ±5m.  The KS for Yotei-zan is a spot elevation of 20m on the perimeter of the Chitose International Airport (for Sapporo).  Please note that more than half of the actual key saddles have been significantly altered by earthworks for railroad cuts, highway passes, and canals.

Lat and Long:  Are taken from SRTM analysis and should be considered accurate to ± 15 seconds.



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