Mount Sobo

Mount Sobo is a 1,756 m peak on the boundary of Taketa, Bungo-Ōno, and Takachiho in northern Kyushu — the second-highest summit on the Kyushu mainland and the highest peak in Miyazaki Prefecture. Listed in Fukada Kyūya's Hyakumeizan, the Hana-no-Hyakumeizan, and the Ittō-Sankakuten Hyakumeizan, it forms the core of Sobo-Katamuki Quasi-National Park (designated 2017). The summit ridges are cloaked in primary forest of beech and Tsuga sieboldii, and the wider Sobo-Katamuki-Ōkue area is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. In myth the mountain enshrines Toyotamahime, the grandmother (sobo) of Emperor Jinmu — the source of its name. The shortest approach is the Kitatani trailhead on the Oita side, climbing via the three-prefecture-boundary and Kuni-mi-tōge to the summit; alternative routes from the Miyazaki side ascend from Obira, Kitagawa, or via Mount Oyaji.