It lies on the southern border of the city of Futtsu and the town Kyonan in Awa District in Chiba Prefecture.

The mountain runs east to west, having the characteristic sawtoothed profile of a Japanese saw (鋸, nokogiri).

Both features are due in part to the mountain's history as a stone quarry in the Edo period, the marks of which are still picturesquely evident.

The western side of the mountain is also the site of the sprawling Nihon-ji temple complex, which is the home of two Daibutsu sculptures - a huge seated carving of Yakushi Nyorai that at 31.05 metres (101.9 ft) tall is the largest pre-modern, stone-carved Daibutsu in Japan, and the "Hundred-shaku Kannon", a tall relief image of Kannon carved into one of the quarry walls - as well as 1500 hand-carved arhat sculptures, which combined with the spectacular scenery of the Bōsō Hills and Tokyo Bay, make Mount Nokogiri a popular tourism destination.

The western end of the mountain falls precipitously into Tokyo Bay, where Cape Myōgane (Japanese: 明鐘岬) is a good place to watch large ships pass through Uraga Channel at sunset.