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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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The cableway’s predecessor carried fallen timber, not sightseers: after the 1954 Toyamaru Typhoon toppled trees, a freight ropeway hauled them out. Rinyu built the tourist line, which opened on June 29, 1967.
In 1921, local innkeeper Tadashi Shiotani persuaded writer Omachi Keigetsu to begin his Daisetsuzan trek at Sounkyo. After a 4-day, trail-less traverse, Keigetsu named the gorge for Ainu So-un-pet, “river with waterfalls.”
At 1,300m, the fifth-station restaurant serves Kamikawa ramen. Down in town, local restaurateurs formed a “Ramen Japan No. 1” society to promote it—a proud hometown boast, not an official national title.
On Kurodake, fall color begins near the summit in late August and takes about a month to reach the ropeway base at Sounkyo. One ride can carry you through a whole moving gradient of autumn.
In 1923—just 2 years after Keigetsu’s trek—Hokkaido mountaineers opened a traverse linking Sounkyo, Kurodake and Asahidake, and built stone shelters at both peaks. The ropeway now provides a gateway to that historic route.
Officially Japan’s northernmost ropeway, it carries up to 101 passengers from Sounkyo at 670m to Kurodake’s fifth station at 1,300m in about 7 minutes—a 630m climb through the gorge.
Kamikawa Ainu have revered Daisetsuzan as Kamuimintara, “the garden where the gods play.” Another recorded Ainu name for the massif is Nutapukaushpe, a reminder that this landscape carries Indigenous names as well as scenic views.
Even skiing here follows careful snow rules: some runs may open only after snow reaches 1.0m at set points—and 1.4m beside the former Tenjo-ga-hara station—to protect alpine and wetland plants.
Kurodake’s ski season runs from early December into early May—nearly half the year. The same high-mountain landscape seen green in summer becomes a powder-snow slope through winter and spring.
At the 1,300m fifth station, Chishima cherry blossoms usually open in late May to early June, with lingering snow still in view. It is a brief high-mountain spring before the summer flowers follow.
Look out from the fifth-station rooftop: the broad terrain in view is a pyroclastic-flow landscape, a trace of ancient volcanic activity. The ropeway brings this geologic story into view without a long climb.
The paired gondolas wear different seasons: one is painted with autumn color, the other with fresh greenery. They leave together and pass midway up, like opposite moments in Kurodake’s calendar.
