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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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At Asahidake, the 10–20 cm Ezo pika stays awake all winter. This Ice Age arrival from Siberia stores leaves between rocks as a pantry, and its sharp call may be heard near Sugatami Pond.
Daisetsuzan’s translucent-yellow usubakicho butterfly occurs nowhere else in Japan. Its caterpillar eats komakusa; it overwinters first as an egg, then as a cocoon, taking nearly 2 years to become an adult.
“Playground of the Gods” is the poetic translation; Daisetsuzan’s geopark also glosses Kamuy Mintar as “the gods’ earthen floor/open space.” An Ainu dictionary defines mintar as an outdoor yard or bare ground.
At Asahidake’s Nupuri Kor Kamuynomi, nupuri-kor-kamuy—usually a word for brown bear—means the mountain deity. Held since 1959, the June rite uses flower-tipped arrows, songs and dances to pray for safe climbs.
Kamikawa Ainu settlements followed the Ishikari and its tributaries, where people gathered giant-lily bulbs, caught salmon and dried fish for winter. Daisetsuzan’s river valleys were a pantry as well as a homeland.
Most Daisetsuzan peaks are around 2,000 m, but the northern latitude creates conditions like Honshu’s 3,000 m mountains. The summit zone supports about 250 alpine plant species, including local endemics.
For Kamikawa Ainu, rivers were living beings that travel upstream toward their source. The Ishikari’s headwaters rise in Daisetsuzan, placing the mountain nearest the gods’ world in their spiritual geography.
Daisetsuzan also has Ainu names Nutap-ka-us-pe and Nutap-kamuy-sir. Nutap-ka-us-pe remains a puzzle: sources suggest “nutap” may mean land inside a river bend or a broad wetland high on the mountain.
