Amagi Ridgeline Trail was added to Your Favorites!
Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Haccho Pond, reached by the trail, was once thought to be a volcanic crater lake. Geologists now identify it as a fault lake: water collected in a hollow formed when an active fault shifted.
At the trail’s Amagi Pass end, the 445.5 m Old Amagi Tunnel opened in 1905, built entirely of cut stone. Japan’s longest surviving stone tunnel, it is also linked with Kawabata’s *The Dancing Girl of Izu*.
Amagi’s spring-fed slopes support wasabi, grown here since 1744. Local history credits forester Kanshiro Itagaki with bringing seedlings home after teaching shiitake cultivation in Utogi.
At Haccho Pond, forest green tree frogs lay white, foam-like egg masses on branches above the water. The eggs hatch in the foam, and the tiny tadpoles drop into the pond below.
Amagi-shakunage, the mountain’s pink rhododendron, grows naturally at just 2 places: the Amagi range and Chōkurō Mountain. Around Amagi, it blooms from mid-May into early June.
Haccho Pond’s name comes from an old estimate of its shore at 8 cho—about 870 m. The measured loop is closer to 560 m, so the “Eight-cho Pond” falls roughly 300 m short of its name.
On June 2, 1930, Emperor Shōwa hiked to Haccho Pond and observed its tree frogs. A stone monument commemorates the visit—a memorable stop on a trail whose wildlife once drew a keen naturalist.
In colder winters, Haccho Pond froze solid enough for people to skate on its natural ice. A photograph of skaters from around 1963, shared in Kawazu Town’s newsletter, captures this former local winter pastime.
A small hut stood beside Haccho Pond from 1962 to 1977. Because the pond water wasn’t suitable for drinking, forestry workers carried fresh water up the mountain for the hut.
The Amagi forest wasn’t simply left untouched: Edo authorities barred unauthorized felling of 7 tree species, later adding fir and hemlock. Together, the protected species became known as the “Amagi Nine Trees.”
Near Haccho Pond, some beeches spread their branches unusually close to the ground. Researchers linked these forms to Edo-era charcoal cutting: sparse stands gave trees room to branch low, beyond wind alone.
The Haccho Pond forest has an unusual botanical blend: the Kanto Forest Management Bureau says this beech-and-himeshara community is found nowhere else among the forests it manages.
