Hakusan

Chubu, Japan · Mountain, Town / small city

The third of Japan's three sacred mountains, alongside Fuji and Tateyama, and the one people climb by sleeping at 2,450 m so they can stand on the summit at sunrise. Below it lies a valley of snow-country villages, pressed tofu and hot springs that still works on the day you don't go up.

The essentials

Getting there

Train + bus — From Kanazawa a Hokutetsu bus runs to the Betto-deai trailhead in about 2 hours. The Map company's bus from Matto Station does not reach Betto-deai: it terminates at Ichinose, costs ¥2,500 each way (¥1,300 for children) and you change there to the shuttle, paid separately; it leaves Matto at 05:30, 06:40 and 07:05, and the return from Ichinose varies by day, with days when the only one is at 15:30. Both buses run only in the climbing season and with few departures, so the return time shapes the whole plan. By car it is about 65 km from the Fukui-Kita interchange and about 40 minutes from Ichinose (829 m) up to Betto-deai (1,260 m). What decides whether you get there at all is the private-vehicle restriction on those 6 km: in 2026 Ishikawa Prefecture applies it from 4 July to 12 October on weekends and public holidays, plus Fridays in the second half of July and the first half of August. On restricted days the uphill run belongs to the shuttle from 05:00 to 15:30 and the downhill run goes from 09:30 to 17:00, with last boarding at 16:30; on the last day of each stretch you can only go up until 12:00, and the following day there is no uphill service at all, only downhill from 09:30 to 15:30 and every 30 minutes. You park at Ichinose (about 560 free spaces) and take the shuttle, which comes every 20 minutes and costs ¥1,000 one way or ¥2,000 return (¥500 and ¥1,000 for primary-school children and under). Motorcycles, bicycles and large coaches are not allowed, and roadside parking is banned until 30 November. Outside the restriction you can park at Betto-deai, but it has 200 spaces and fills before dawn; in 2026 there are two trial days of advance booking for that car park, 14 August and 23 September, from 04:00 to 12:00 and for only 100 of the spaces, first come first served. In heavy rain the park road closes and the shuttle does not run. The road to Betto-deai is shut for the winter.

Frequently asked questions about Hakusan

What to do in Hakusan: 26 activities

• A night at Murodo mountain lodge, 2,450 m 14 h must-see booking only 1 May - 15 Oct

  Hakusan's largest lodge sits at 2,450 m, sleeps up to 750 people and puts you in a shared room the staff assign. It opens 1 May to 15 October: May and June are room-only, and from 1 July dinner and breakfast are served. Booking is compulsory for the whole season and by telephone only (076-273-1001, 09:00-17:00); same-day bookings are not taken and three days' notice is advised. ¥13,000 with both meals or ¥9,000 without (¥10,000 and ¥6,000 up to junior-high age), cash only, no cards. Breakfast runs 06:00-08:00 and lights go out at 20:30 in summer, 20:00 in spring and autumn.

• Gozengaho summit (2,702 m) at sunrise 2 h must-see only 1 May - 15 Oct

  From the shelf where you sleep to the summit of Gozengaho, 2,702 m, is 900 m of trail, 250 m of ascent and about 40 minutes of climbing. That single figure is why almost everyone spends the night up here and sets off before dawn with a head torch. In July and August a shrine priest beats a drum an hour before sunrise to wake the whole lodge; in spring and autumn there is no priest and you set an alarm. The summit is cold and windy even in August.

• Up to Murodo on the Sabo-shindo 5 h must-see only 1 May - 15 Oct

  The standard route on the Ishikawa side: 6.0 km from Betto-deai (1,260 m) to Murodo (2,450 m), about 1,190 m of height difference — the two published altitudes subtracted, since nobody publishes the route's ascent figure — and between 4 and 4 h 30 up excluding breaks: Hakusan city gives 4 h 30 up and 2 h 20 down, the tourism association 4 h and 2 h 30. The trail is broad and heavily walked, stepped on the steep sections, with water and toilets at Chuiba and at the Jinnosuke emergency hut halfway. The prefecture puts the summit day-return at 13.0 km and 7 hours 42 minutes of walking, which with breaks means a long ten-hour day. Carry at least two litres of water: the springs on the way are not always usable. In May and June snowfields remain and light crampons are advised.

• Autumn in Hakusan National Park 4 h only 20 Sep - 10 Nov

  The colour comes down the mountain over a month: the Nanryu meadows in early October, the beech woods along the Sabo-shindo in mid-month (beech covers the whole flank up to about 1,600 m), and the Tedorigawa gorge and the valley from late October into early November. The upside is far fewer people than in August; the price is that the high lodges close on 15 October and the first snow can arrive before that.

• Down to Betto-deai on the Kanko-shindo 3 h only 1 Jun - 15 Oct

  The second route between Betto-deai and Murodo: 6.1 km with the same height difference of about 1,190 m, but 4 hours 50 minutes up against 3 hours down, because it follows the ridge rather than the bottom of the gorge. Most people go up the Sabo-shindo and come down this way, with the valley in front of them and the flower meadows by the Dongaike emergency hut halfway. The full summit day-return is 12.2 km and 9 hours of walking. The two trails rejoin just above the Betto-deai bridge.

• Hakusan's alpine flowers and the black lily 2 h only 10 Jul - 20 Aug

  Hakusan marks the western limit of Japan's true alpine zone and holds more than a hundred species of high-altitude plant, many of them named after the mountain: hakusan-kozakura, hakusan-furo, gozen-tachibana. The most sought after is the kuroyuri, the black lily, which shows in the meadows at Murodo and Nanryu from mid-July into early August. Nothing is picked or touched: this is all national park.

• Shiramine, the village of three-storey houses 2 h Hakusan (barrio de Shiramine) · 25 min

  The last village in the valley before the mountain, with some of the heaviest recorded snowfall in the country: tall timber houses with livestock on the ground floor and silkworms upstairs, narrow lanes and open channels running with meltwater. It was a mountain settlement that lived on silk and livestock rather than tourism, and it shows. Almost all the destination's lodging that is not up the mountain is here.

• Shiramine's village bathhouse 1 h Hakusan (barrio de Shiramine) · 25 min

  A public hot-spring bath in the middle of Shiramine, the place to go with wrecked legs after coming off the mountain. Sodium bicarbonate water that leaves the skin slippery, pools inside and out, and ¥900 for an adult since October 2026 (¥450 primary school, ¥300 from age three). It opens 12:00-21:00 on weekdays and 10:00-21:00 at weekends and on holidays, last entry 20:30, and closes on Tuesdays and over New Year: check before counting on it for the afternoon of the descent.

• Shirayama Hime-jinja, the head shrine 1 h Hakusan (barrio de Sannomiya) · 50 min

  The lowland shrine of the Hakusan cult, in a cedar wood at the mouth of the valley, with a stone approach and a sacred cedar some eight hundred years old and over forty metres tall. The shrine itself calls it the head of more than three thousand Hakusan shrines spread across Japan, and most people who climbed the mountain came through here first. It is open all year, which is exactly what is needed in the months when the mountain is shut.

• Shirayama Hime's summit shrine 1 h only 1 Jul - 15 Oct

  On top of Gozengaho, at 2,702 m and about 40 minutes above the lodges, stands a small stone shrine: the Okumiya, the mountain seat of Shirayama Hime-jinja. Tradition has the monk Taicho opening the mountain in 717, and long before any of this was mountaineering it was a pilgrimage. The line of people waiting for the sun in silence still looks like one.

• Stars and a sea of cloud from Murodo 2 h booking only 1 May - 15 Oct

  At 2,450 m, with the Sea of Japan to the west and no city in between, the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye whenever the sky holds. And when the valley is socked in, what is left below is a sea of cloud with only the Northern Alps breaking through. Only people who have booked a bed up here get to see it, you need to be inside before lights out at 20:30, and proper warm clothing is essential: August nights drop below 10C.

• The crater pond circuit (Ohike-meguri) 2 h only 1 Jul - 15 Oct

  A short loop around the ponds set between Hakusan's three summits, Gozengaho (2,702 m), Onanjimine (2,684 m) and Kengamine (2,677 m): seven ponds and about 2 hours at an easy pace from the shelf at 2,450 m, over the summit and past Senjagaike. It is what people do after sunrise before heading down, and the only way to see the inside of the volcano. In June some ponds are still frozen, and the snowfield at Senjagaike lasts all summer.

• Betto-deai: the trailhead centre and its suspension bridge 1 h only 1 May - 31 Oct

  Where everything starts, at 1,260 m: a timber building with toilets, water, maps and the box for the climbing registration form, which is always requested here. Leaving it you cross a suspension bridge over the Betto river, the bottleneck of the day, with queues at peak hours. Outside the season the route cannot be used: the road up to Betto-deai is shut for the winter and the walkway is unusable. Hakusan is an active volcano under permanent watch by the Meteorological Agency, which in September 2026 keeps it at alert level 1 of 5 — bear in mind it is an active volcano, with no access restriction — and the season opening includes an eruption drill.

• Ichinose visitor centre and the shuttle to the trailhead 1 h only 1 May - 5 Nov

  At 829 m, the last place with a large car park (around 560 spaces), toilets, a bath and a valley inn. The visitor centre is open 1 May to 5 November, 08:45-17:00 and free, and its staff know the state of the trail and the snow, which is the figure that actually matters in May and October. It is also the compulsory stop on vehicle-restriction days: the shuttle covers the 6 km up to Betto-deai, comes every 20 minutes and costs ¥1,000 one way or ¥2,000 return, and on restricted days it runs down until 17:00 with last boarding at 16:30. Check the time of the last bus down, because missing it means six kilometres of road on foot.

• Nanryu-ga-baba, the park's high meadows 4 h booking only 1 Jul - 15 Oct

  The alternative to Murodo for anyone who wants fewer people: 4.9 km from Betto-deai (1,260 m) on a branch of the Sabo-shindo, 3 hours up and 2 hours down to a terrace of wet meadows on the col between Gozengaho and Bessan, which the prefecture puts at about 2,080 m and the Ministry of the Environment at about 2,100, with a mountain lodge and the prefecture's tent area. This has to be booked ahead too. From here the summit is reached up a different flank, the Echo Line, which was closed from 25 June to 14 September 2026 by a landslip and has reopened on a provisional repair the Ministry warns may fail again: check the two-day circuit on the day itself. In early October it is the best place in the park for autumn colour.

• Opening the mountain, 1 July 2 h only the mountain opening, 1 July

  On 1 July the kaizansai rite formally opens the season at Betto-deai: that is the day meals start at the high lodge, the shop up top opens, and the mountain goes from being a few people's business to being full. There are ceremonies at the shrine below and up at the prayer hall. If the plan is to climb with few people around, the week before and the middle of September are far better than this one.

• Sake made with Hakusan's water 1 h Hakusan (zona de Tsurugi) · 45 min

  Snowmelt off Hakusan and rice from the Tedori delta keep several historic breweries going in the old town of Tsurugi, at the mouth of the valley beside the head shrine, with timber warehouses and shops where you taste before you buy. A couple of them are among Ishikawa's best-known labels. It is a stop on the way to Kanazawa rather than a detour.

• Shiramine's pressed tofu 1 h Hakusan (barrio de Shiramine) · 25 min

  In the snow villages of the Tedori valley, tofu is pressed so hard you can tie it with string and carry it slung over a shoulder: katadofu, made to survive the road and the winter. It is eaten grilled with miso or in the house stew, and sold in the village shops. With game meat and mountain vegetables, it is what people actually eat for dinner in Shiramine.

• Sleeping at Hakusan Raichoso 12 h booking only 1 Jul - 10 Oct

  The other place to stay at Murodo, smaller and on the same shelf at 2,450 m, with six private rooms and a season running from 1 July to early October. It is booked by telephone in Japanese, through the same Murodo reservation centre, with a ¥10,000 deposit by bank transfer and the rest in cash on arrival. Worth checking before writing off a night up high in high summer.

• The Chugu hot springs, across the valley 3 h Hakusan (barrio de Chūgū) · 60 min only 1 May - 15 Nov

  A couple of timber inns tucked into a ravine in the Ozo valley on the park's northern side, with water traditionally drunk as a cure and a season that follows the mountain's own calendar. This is the onsen for people who came for the mountain and want to be off the main road: a narrow approach, few beds, a winter closure tied to that of the White Road you come in by, and day bathing from 10:30 to 14:30 for ¥700 (¥400 for children). It is a long way from Shiramine and from the trailhead, so it is a separate night rather than an afternoon trip.

• The Hakusan-Shirakawago White Road 3 h only 1 Jun - 10 Nov

  A toll road crossing the park's northern flank between Ishikawa and Gifu, with waterfalls (Fukube drops right beside the asphalt), viewpoints over the massif and several tunnels. It is 33.3 km in all, and the toll from end to end, from the Chugu barrier to the Magari one, costs ¥1,700 one way and ¥2,600 return for an ordinary car; motorcycles are never allowed through. It opens from early June to 10 November, 07:00-18:00 in summer and 08:00-17:00 in autumn: it closes at night and sometimes for rain or roadworks, so check on the day. It is the way to link up with Shirakawa-go without dropping to the plain.

• The Kuwajima fossil wall and the dinosaurs 2 h Hakusan (barrio de Shiramine) · 25 min

  On the bank of the Tedorigawa stands a cliff of Tetori Group rock, sediments laid down between 170 and 110 million years ago, which has yielded dinosaurs, plants and early mammals. The museum in Shiramine village shows what has come out of it and lets you handle real rock, which works better with children than any display case. It is the rainy-day plan and the natural companion to the Katsuyama dinosaur museum on the other side of the mountain.

• The old pilgrims' path, the Kaga Zenjodo 3 h only 1 May - 15 Nov

  Before the Sabo-shindo and before the road, Hakusan was climbed by three zenjodo, ascetic paths running up from Kaga, Mino and Echizen, established around the year 832. The Kaga one starts at the lowland shrine and covers tens of kilometres to the summit; today it is walked in sections, with panels and the remains of pilgrim lodgings. It is the way to understand why this mountain is sacred and not just high.

• The prayer hall at Murodo 1 h only 1 Jul - 31 Aug

  On the shelf at 2,450 m, next to the buildings where people sleep, a timber hall holds the religious side of the place: the Okumiya Kitoden, where evening prayers are said and amulets and shrine stamps are sold. In July and August a priest sent up by the lowland shrine is resident; in spring and autumn there is none. For many local visitors this is still a religious climb, and that changes the mood of the evening up here.

• The Tedorigawa gorge 2 h Hakusan (zona de Tsurugi-Yoshino) · 35 min

  About 8 km of gorge cut by the river coming down off Hakusan, with walls 20 to 30 m high, roadside viewpoints and the Watagataki falls, a 32 m drop. Getting down to the foot of the water means about 130 steep, slippery steps; anyone who would rather not has the viewpoint 150 m from the car park. It is seen on the way into the valley without leaving the route, and in late October it is the destination's best autumn-colour stop once everything higher up has closed.

• Ushikubi tsumugi, the valley's silk 1 h booking Hakusan (barrio de Shiramine) · 25 min

  Silk spun by hand from two cocoons at once, which gives an uneven thread and a cloth so tough it was called the fabric that grips a nail. It has been made in this valley for centuries, and the Shiramine weaving workshop-museum can be visited by prior arrangement and for a fee, with the reeling and the loom on view; there is a second workshop in the Bunyudo district, outside the valley. It explains in one go why the houses in Shiramine have three floors.

What only happens on specific dates

• A night at Murodo mountain lodge, 2,450 m 1 May - 15 Oct
• Gozengaho summit (2,702 m) at sunrise 1 May - 15 Oct
• Up to Murodo on the Sabo-shindo 1 May - 15 Oct
• Stars and a sea of cloud from Murodo 1 May - 15 Oct
• Betto-deai: the trailhead centre and its suspension bridge 1 May - 31 Oct
• Ichinose visitor centre and the shuttle to the trailhead 1 May - 5 Nov
• The Chugu hot springs, across the valley 1 May - 15 Nov
• The old pilgrims' path, the Kaga Zenjodo 1 May - 15 Nov
• Down to Betto-deai on the Kanko-shindo 1 Jun - 15 Oct
• The Hakusan-Shirakawago White Road 1 Jun - 10 Nov
• Hakusan's alpine flowers and the black lily 10 Jul - 20 Aug
• Shirayama Hime's summit shrine 1 Jul - 15 Oct
• The crater pond circuit (Ohike-meguri) 1 Jul - 15 Oct
• Nanryu-ga-baba, the park's high meadows 1 Jul - 15 Oct
• Opening the mountain, 1 July the mountain opening, 1 July
• Sleeping at Hakusan Raichoso 1 Jul - 10 Oct
• The prayer hall at Murodo 1 Jul - 31 Aug
• Autumn in Hakusan National Park 20 Sep - 10 Nov

Ready-made routes through Hakusan

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