From the window of the train heading from Osaka to Iga, I can see Mount Miminashi (Miminashiyama) standing quietly in the Nara Basin.
There are several theories about the origin of its name.
One says its symmetrical shape makes it look as though its “ears are neatly aligned”; another says that in ancient times the word “ear” could mean a “boundary”.
It also appears in the ancient Man’yōshū. Together with Mount Kagu and Mount Unebi, it is counted among the Three Mountains of Yamato. The area was designated a Historic Landscape Preservation Area in 1967, and the mountain was designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty in 2005.
It is a mountain that has lived in the hearts of Japanese people since ancient times.
Wrapped in soft green, its form somehow seems to carry a human presence, reflecting the light of the changing seasons.
Whenever I look at the ridgeline of Mount Miminashi from the train window, the distant past and the present seem to overlap gently—a curious kind of time flows by.