Imo-tōge Pass

The pass from Asuka to Yoshino

This pass leads from Kayanomori in Asuka Village up into the mountains, over a ridge and down to Chimata in Yoshino Town. It links the far end of the Asuka valley with the gateway to Yoshino.

Today Prefectural Road 15 (the Sakurai–Asuka–Yoshino road) runs over it, so you can cross by car. Just before the pass, the start of the old road runs parallel to the paved road, marked by a signpost reading "Old Road: Imo-tōge."

The road Prince Ōama took

In 672, Prince Ōama (later Emperor Tenmu) withdrew to Yoshino to avoid conflict with the Ōmi court. This is said to be the pass he crossed. In the Jinshin War of the following year, he raised troops from that same Yoshino and marched east.

During her reign, Empress Jitō made more than thirty journeys to Yoshino, and she too is thought to have used this pass. Asuka and Yoshino were connected by this single mountain crossing.

Inukai Takashi's information board

On the pass road stands an information board quoting Man'yō no Tabi (Journeys in the Man'yōshū) by the Man'yōshū scholar Inukai Takashi.

In summary, it says that until the railway came this was an important route between Asuka and Yoshino, but that now nobody crosses it; it is overgrown, the path is easily lost, and it has returned to an abandoned road. It goes on to say that people no longer walk not only mountain paths but even country roads on the flat, that old roads have been cut up, and that most old passes have fallen into disuse.

It then says that the sense of distance that comes from walking has been lost with the development of transport, but that precisely because of this, walking lets us properly recover the reality behind the Man'yōshū poems. It closes by saying that he feels this deeply when pushing through the grass on a pass.

"On the peak of Mimiga in fair Yoshino"

The board also gives a poem composed by Emperor Tenmu.

"Mi-Yoshino no / Mimiga no mine ni / toki naku zo / yuki wa furikeru / ma naku zo / ame wa furikeru / sono yuki no / toki naki ga goto / sono ame no / ma naki ga goto / kuma mo ochizu / omoitsutsu zo koshi / sono yamamichi o" — "On the peak of Mimiga in fair Yoshino, snow fell without season, rain fell without pause. Like that snow without season, like that rain without pause, at every bend of the way I came lost in thought, along that mountain road." (Man'yōshū, Book 1, poem 25)

Comparing his thoughts to the snow and rain that fall without end, the poet says he came along the road brooding at every turn. "That mountain road" is the road over this pass.

Visiting

About 4 km south of Kayanomori in Asuka Village along Prefectural Road 15, or about an hour and a half on foot from Kayanomori. On either side of the pass the road is a single lane through cedar forest with few passing places, so drive carefully.

The signpost gives the old-road section as "1,000 m." It is an earth path covered in fallen leaves and moss, and very slippery after rain.

Administratively, the south side of the pass belongs to Yoshino Town, but we include it here because the road is essential to the story of Asuka.