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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Tokyo
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Oku-Hikawa Shrine’s lion dance dates to before 1792. April rites once sought protection from hail, August rites from violent winds; performers still begin at the former village head’s home and process to the shrine.
At the meeting of the Tama and Nippara rivers, the gravel bars are not left entirely to nature: the Nippara riverbed is prepared in stepped terraces for the early-March trout-season opening.
Developed in Okutama in 1998, “Okutama yamame” is an all-female fish with 3 chromosome sets. It does not mature to spawn, so it can grow about twice as large as ordinary yamame; local restaurants serve it as sashimi.
A spring wildflower at Hikawa Valley is called yogore-nekonomeso—literally, “dirty cat’s-eye.” Its April blooms pair bright yellow bracts with tiny dark-red stamens, a prettier sight than the name suggests.
Hikawa Valley’s short walk has a long autumn flower list: visitor-center records from 2020–23 document 16 flowering plants here, including yamajinohototogisu, a spotted Japanese toad lily.
Beside the Hikawa Valley walk, Oku-Hikawa Shrine’s sacred cedar is one tree that divides into 3 upright trunks about 3 m above ground. It has been protected as a Tokyo natural monument since 1926.
The station beside the valley once shared its name: it opened as Hikawa in 1944 and kept that name until 1971. By then, Hikawa Town had joined two neighboring municipalities to form Okutama.
