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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Nagano
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A raindrop on Kobushigatake’s ridges has a three-sea destiny: one side feeds the Chikuma–Shinano to the Sea of Japan; other slopes drain via the Arakawa to Tokyo Bay or Fuefuki–Fuji to Suruga Bay.
This 2,160m seep starts Japan’s 367-km longest river: Chikuma in Nagano, Shinano in Niigata. Oddly, the Chikuma-named reach is longer—214km to the Shinano reach’s 153km.
The 2,743-ha Chikuma Source Forest supplies drinking water to 4,011 people and irrigation to 1,922ha. In 2024, Kawakami shipped 69,728 tonnes of lettuce, making the village Japan’s top producer.
Kawakami preserves a vivid folk etymology for Chikuma: after a battle among Takamagahara’s gods, their blood supposedly spread across the land, inspiring 血隈川 (“blood-spread river”). It’s legend, not documented history.
Reach the source, send Kawakami a photo from your climb, and village mascot Letasuke issues a free certificate. His official age is “8?”; ask him and he grins, “yasai”—Japanese for vegetables.
A river-office estimate gives a drop about 5 days to travel from this source to Niigata’s port at normal flow—but only around 20 hours in flood conditions.
In the early Meiji era, Kawakami’s larch seedlings found markets as far away as Korea, Manchuria and Europe, according to village history. The Chikuma headwaters are still known as the “home of larch.”
The wider Chikuma Source Forest includes the Dōdan grove, where natural larches are estimated at about 180 years old—a rare wild contrast to the planted larch stands across much of the headwaters.
The mountain above the spring was originally called 拳岳 (“Fist Peak”), according to the Forestry Agency. Its better-known name, 甲武信, packs in 3 old provinces: Kai, Musashi and Shinano.
Kawakami Village says that even in midsummer the source water is biting cold, yet iwana char and yamame trout live in these headwaters—life thriving right at the start of Japan’s longest river.
