Cultural Assets－Sutra Mounds

Sutra mound #9 is located at the top of Mount Izumi-Katsuragi. The mountain inspires reverence among the locals, as it is a water source for the crop-growing region across Kinokawa and Osaka. In the Shozan-engi, a record of Shugendo mountains compiled in the early Kamakura Period (12th century), the site is referred to as Ryu no Shuku.
The Kii Shoku-fudoki (an early 19th century geography record) describes the place as a mountain ascetic training site located in the Katsuragi mountains at the border of the Senshu region, on the route for Ushitaki (Senshu) and Osaka. From these descriptions, we can infer that it was a Shugendo training site and was once a key transit point.