Where the gods first came to Japan... This unusual airplane view of one of the world's most famous mountains shows the extinct crater of Takachiho, one of the Kirishima Mountains in Kyushu, the southern Island of Japan. Japanese legend holds that when the ancient gods first came to earth to found the empire of Nippon they alighted first on Takachiho. The mountain there fore is venerated as a sacred spot by the 70,000,000 Japanese. August 3, 1935. (Photo by Associated Press Photo).