Kirishima

Kirishima is a group of more than twenty overlapping stratovolcanoes and cones straddling the border of Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures on Japan's Kyushu island, with its highest peak, Karakunidake, reaching roughly 1,700 meters. Among its component peaks, Mount Takachiho holds particular cultural weight in Japanese mythology as the traditional site where the sun goddess Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi is said to have descended from heaven, and the nearby Kirishima Jingu shrine is dedicated to that legend. The volcanic group's most active vent in recent years, Shinmoedake, has produced a series of notable eruptions, including a major explosive episode in 2011 that sent ash plumes several kilometers high and disrupted air travel across the region, followed by renewed activity in 2018. Built from andesitic material typical of the Kyushu volcanic arc, the complex sits within Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park, one of Japan's oldest national parks, and its varied cones and crater lakes, including Onamiike, make it one of the country's most visited volcanic hiking areas. This entity documents Kirishima specifically as a geological formation, a group of more than twenty stratovolcanoes on Kyushu whose Shinmoedake vent erupted disruptively in 2011.