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Hidakasanmyaku Erimo Tokachi NP, Hokkaido
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
At the Wind House, fans reproduce 25 m/s—within the Japan Meteorological Agency’s “very strong wind” category. Outside, winds of at least 10 m/s blow here on more than 260 days a year.
In 1997, weather forecaster Atsushi Kurashima gave Cape Erimo the poetic nickname “the land of the Wind Pole” (風極の地)—a fitting title for one of Japan’s windiest places.
To protect the park scenery and avoid blocking the lighthouse beam, the Wind House is tucked underground. Its design follows a Kármán vortex—the orderly swirls that form downwind of an obstacle.
Seeds sown on this windy cape kept blowing away. In 1957, local know-how produced the “Erimo method”: covering seed with beach-cast seaweed, which helped hold the soil in place and grasses take root.
The cape’s Ainu name is Onne-enrum: “onne” means “large” or “elder,” and “enrum” means a projecting point or cape. Erimo is also part of Pirika-no-ka, a nationally designated scenic place important in Ainu spiritual heritage.
Two different songs are titled “Erimo Misaki”: Chiyoko Shimakura’s memorial stone was erected in 1971, and Shinichi Mori’s in 1997. They stand side by side at the cape.
