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Akan-Mashū NP, Hokkaido
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In 1986, an Ainu fox-spirit sending ceremony, Chironnup Kamuy Iomante, took place at Bihoro Pass—75 years after an earlier one, filmmakers say. They restored the footage into a documentary 35 years later.
When floods cut the southern route into Kussharo in August 1920, Teshikaga was isolated and residents carried supplies from Bihoro on foot. The emergency pushed completion of the pass road, open by year’s end.
Here, a “cloud sea” can come by three routes: Pacific sea fog travels north from Kushiro; clear, calm nights drain cold air into the caldera; and winter lake vapor makes steam fog. Sometimes the pass disappears too.
Bihoro Pass’s age-imo—battered fried potatoes—was already a hit before the roadside station existed. A local maker says old stallholders passed their recipe orally to the rest-house operator, keeping the snack tradition alive.
The island in the center of Lake Kussharo is a post-caldera lava dome: a volcanic mound formed after the vast caldera. From Bihoro Pass, you can see a later volcanic feature sitting inside the older one.
Bihoro Town traces its name to Ainu pi-poro, “abundant water, great place.” Fittingly, the Bihoro River begins at this pass; the town calls it its “mother river” among roughly 60 rivers.
Long before highways, Ainu people followed paths around the Kussharo caldera rim to reach Ikenoyu hot spring by the lake. Today’s Mashu-Kussharo Trail follows the old road between Bihoro Pass and the lakeshore.
Hibari Misora’s song “Bihoro Pass” has a monument at the lookout. Bihoro volunteer guides reported cleaning it each June 24—her death anniversary—a small local tradition tying the song to its namesake landscape.
