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Oze NP, Fukushima
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
The ridge from Aizu-Komagatake to Chumondake has two faces: strong winter westerlies pile snow on its east side, keeping snowmelt wetlands there long after the west side is wooded.
Hakusan kozakura bloom in clusters between Koma-no-Oike and Chumondake. Hinoemata calls them 南京小桜 (“Nanjing kozakura”); the flower-filled summer mountain inspired the name of the village kabuki troupe 花駒座 (Hana-Koma-za).
Beside Nakadake Pond, the Chumondake marker says “this whole area” is the mountain. It suits a summit that is a level marshy ridge, where the boardwalk loops around the wetland rather than climbing a sharp peak.
The boardwalk toward Chumondake is part of Hinoemata’s effort to protect the summit marsh from trampling, begun in the 1970s. Early work relied on people hauling timber, and could be done only in the snow-free months.
The Aizu-Komagatake wetland group is on Japan’s Environment Ministry “Important Wetlands” list for distinctive high-moor and snowbed plant communities. The ridge from Aizu-Komagatake toward Chumondake is also in Oze’s Special Protection Zone.
