Daisetsuzan Asahidake Ropeway was added to Your Favorites!
Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Yellow grains near Asahidake’s steaming vents are native sulfur. Mining rights were granted in 1944, and extraction was attempted in 1951 and 1957; traces of the old workers’ route remain beside the Sugatami loop.
Since 1959, Kamikawa Ainu and Higashikawa residents have marked Asahidake’s hiking season with Nupurikoro Kamuynomi, a mountain prayer for safe journeys. The ceremony at the mountain’s foot keeps a living relationship with the sacred peak.
At Sugatami, the white chinguruma flower has a second act: its seeds grow feathery plumes that sway like a child’s pinwheel. That image gave the plant its Japanese name, shortened from chigo-guruma.
Autumn arrives remarkably early around the ropeway’s 1,600-m Sugatami Station: high-alpine leaves begin coloring in late August, and Asahidake is known for Japan’s earliest fall foliage. By September, red and gold spread across the slopes.
Some designated ski routes above the ropeway wait for deep snow before opening: park rules set minimum depths of 1 m at checkpoints and 1.4 m near the former Tennyo-ga-hara station, helping shield fragile alpine plants and wetlands.
Look for the pine grosbeak around Sugatami: the male is rosy pink, while the female is yellow-brown, and the bird is only about 20 cm long. The Asahidake Visitor Center notes it can be seen near the pond and is listed as Near Threatened in Hokkaido.
Today, the ropeway climbs from 1,100 to 1,600 m in about 10 minutes. Its original line opened in 2 stages in 1967–68, with a transfer at Tennyo-ga-hara; a 2000 rebuild made the ascent direct.
Two ponds on the Sugatami loop are nicknamed Meoto-ike, or “Married Couple Ponds”: one is Suribachi Pond (“Mortar Bowl”), the other Kagami Pond (“Mirror”). Their names turn a pair of volcanic pools into a little piece of local poetry.
