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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Yamanashi
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Mt. Kobushi’s watershed sends rain in 3 directions: the Fuefuki joins the Fuji River for Suruga Bay, the Arakawa reaches Tokyo Bay, and the Chikuma becomes the Shinano on its way to the Sea of Japan.
Mitsutomi residents began opening Nishizawa Gorge in 1962, as falling charcoal and silkworm-cocoon prices hurt local livelihoods. Workers hung from ropes, chiseled rock and built about 2,500 meters of path by hand.
Local legend traces the river’s musical name to Gonzaburo, who searched for his mother along the water, playing his flute after a flood swept her away. After his death, villagers said the flute sounded at night.
The Forestry Agency lists the source forest’s water uses as serving 18,500 people and irrigating 2,216 hectares of farmland—including Yamanashi’s peach and grape-growing country.
In 1915, mountaineers Jūji Tanabe and Ritarō Kogure made the first recorded upstream traverse of the Fuefuki’s East Valley. Tanabe’s essay about the river later appeared in Japanese schoolbooks.
A local tale says Kobo Daishi washed millet porridge from his lips into a pool near the Fuefuki, and the grains marked the yamame trout with millet-like spots. It’s folklore, not fish biology!
甲武信 (Kobushi) can be read as a map in 3 characters: they recall the old provinces Kai, Musashi and Shinano. Another explanation says the mountain’s shape resembles a clenched fist.
The 5,027-hectare Fuefuki source forest was designated a water-conservation forest in 1925—25 years before its national-park designation. The Forestry Agency records 74% of it as natural forest.
Unlike the marked Chikuma source on the same mountain, the Fuefuki’s commonly identified head spring has no marker. A river-museum account describes it among loose, weathered rocks on a steep slope.
