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Yamagata Live Cameras in Japan — 2 official webcams

Mount Gassan seen from Haguro, and Mount Chokai. Both are old mountains of ascetic pilgrimage, and both are famous for holding their snow into summer.

What you can see

Both cameras look at a mountain from a distance; neither is on a summit. Mount Gassan is seen from the plain at Haguro, Mount Chokai from a monitoring point, each taking in the whole massif.

Both have been objects of worship for centuries — Gassan as one of the Three Mountains of Dewa, Chokai as the Fuji of Dewa — and both are known for holding snow late. The shape and length of the white streaks left on the slopes work as a scale for how far the season has moved. Chokai rises almost straight out of the Sea of Japan, so when damp air comes in off the water the summit alone disappears into cloud.

Both are snow mountains, but their shapes are quite different. Mount Gassan is a broad shield volcano, built up by runny lava flowing again and again and spreading its skirts wide. Mount Chokai is the opposite: ejecta piled up into something tall and pointed. The Haguro camera can fit the whole of Gassan into one frame from the plain because the mountain is wide for its height, and the same fact is why the Dewa Sanzan pilgrimage route runs so far along its ridges.

The highest point on Chokai today is rock far younger than the mountain under it. An eruption in 1801 pushed a mass of lava up at the summit; it was named Shinzan, the new mountain, and it became the high point at 2,236 metres. Shichikosan, the summit until then, remains as the neighbouring peak about seven metres lower. The highest bump on the ridge the camera picks out from a distance is, in other words, a piece added a little over two centuries ago. Gassan has no eruption in the historical record: its summit is flat grassland with a shrine on it, and nothing about it points upward from a distance. Two mountains both once called a Fuji, and one is still changing shape while the other stopped long ago.

2 cameras in Yamagata

All 2 are still images. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

Mount Gassan keeps its snow later than almost anywhere in Japan; white is still on the slopes into July. The shape of the snowfields tracks the season directly, so open the camera at the same hour for several days running and you will see it move.

Mount Chokai stands alone on the Yamagata–Akita border, rising straight out of the Sea of Japan. Damp air off the sea often leaves the summit alone in cloud, so treat a clear view as luck.

Closer looks at cameras here

Agencies publishing the cameras on this page

The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.

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