This mountain is the highest in the Chūgoku region, and the most important volcano on the Daisen volcanic belt, which is a part of the Southwestern Honshu volcanic arc, where the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting under the Amurian Plate.

[citation needed] Mount Daisen is a complex volcano, made by repeated volcanic activity over thousands of years.

50,000 years ago, this mountain had a plinian eruption from which volcanic ash can be found as far away as the Tohoku Region of Japan.

Mount Daisen, which stands directly on the Sea of Japan, was regarded as one of the most important mountains for Japanese Shugendō religion.

According to the Izumo Kokudo Fudoki, completed in 733, it was called Ōkami-take, literally, Mountain of the great god.