Kamikochi was added to Your Favorites!
Chubu-Sangaku NP, Nagano
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Researchers filmed Kamikochi macaques catching live fish—the first direct video record of this behavior in Japanese macaques. They documented 14 fishing events across 3 troops during winter 2022, when snow hides much of their food.
At Kamonji Hut, Japanese char (iwana) is skewered and slow-roasted over a wood-fired irori hearth until it can be eaten head to tail. The hut began in 1880 as guide Kamonji’s shelter beside Myojin Pond.
The “makeup willow” earns its name: young twigs wear a white, powdery bloom. In Japan, it grows only in limited parts of the Kamikochi–Azusa River basin and Hokkaido; floods renew the gravel bars it needs.
Taisho Pond formed when Yakedake’s June 6, 1915 mudflow dammed the Azusa River. To stop silt from burying it, winter dredging began in 1977; about 750,000 m³ had been removed by fiscal year 2013.
Every October 8, Hotaka Shrine’s Okumiya holds a boat rite on Myojin Pond: 2 vessels with dragon and mythical-bird heads circle the water as prayers give thanks for the mountains and ask for safety.
No one is sure how Kappa Bridge got its name: one tale places a kappa in a deep pool; another compares waders carrying clothes on their heads to water sprites. Akutagawa’s 1927 novella helped make the name famous.
When Kamikochi’s first Imperial Hotel opened in 1933, the access road reached only Taisho Pond. Building materials came through Kama Tunnel to the pond, then were ferried by small boat to the hotel site.
Kamikochi was once written 神垣内 rather than 上高地. An Environment Ministry account notes that the Myojin area was also called 神降地, “place where the kami descend,” among other names—a reminder of its sacred history.
The “Japanese Alps” label predates Walter Weston: British engineer William Gowland called the Hida Mountains “Alps” in an 1881 guidebook. Weston’s 1896 book later introduced Kamikochi’s mountains to readers abroad.
Kamikochi was once a summer pasture. Beginning in 1885, local people drove cattle and horses from Matsumoto over Tokugo Pass to graze at Konashidaira, Myojin, and Tokusawa; the ranch ended in 1934.
Tashiro Pond stays partly unfrozen even when the air drops below 0°C. Springs fed by groundwater from Mt. Roppyaku and Mt. Kasumi keep its water moving through the cold season.
In 1954, Nagano Prefecture and Tokyo Electric Power proposed a large hydropower dam for Kamikochi. Conservation advocates opposed the plan, and it was defeated before it could reshape the valley.
The protected cultural-property zone called Kamikochi stretches beyond the valley floor to surrounding ridgelines. It covers 113.27 km²—about 12% of Matsumoto City—and has both Special Place of Scenic Beauty and Special Natural Monument status.
Weston’s relief was removed during World War II and kept by the Japan Alpine Club in Tokyo; it returned to Kamikochi in 1947. The circular portrait visitors see today was made in 1965.
