When the name was first invented, it apparently did not point to the specific 36 mountains, but just expressed an impression that there were a chain of gently sloping mountains in the east viewed from the Rakuchu (inside the capital Kyoto), which could be seen as roughly 36 of them.
言葉の成立当初は、具体的に36の峰を擁するという意味ではなく、なだらかに連なる東山の山々を洛中から見て、おおよそ三十六ほどは連なっていようかと例えられたものであろう。