The mountain has been very important in the Japanese Culture since ancient times. Especially, the symbolism of the mountain has been and is playing a significant role in the Japanese folk religions and Buddhism. I tried to show this importance by comparing the symbolism of the mountain in Shintoism with that in Buddhism. Through this discussion, it was pointed out that the maternal aspect of the mountain was playing a more important role than the paternal one. In Shintoism, this tendency is more predominant than in Buddhism. The deity of the mountain is a protector of the Japanese people and assume even a figure of the goddess. In Buddhism, the spiritual aspect of the mountain is more accentuated. But the quintessence of its spiritual meaning is very different from that in the European culture. Although, in the European culture, the relationship between spirit and nature tends to be an opposite one, this is not contradictory in that of Japan. The close relationship with nature is the most important point in the Japanese spirituality. Japanese Buddhism typically expresses this quality.