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Myōkō-Togakushi Renzan NP, Nagano
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Shinano’s heirloom Kurohime mochi corn is not sweet: its cobs are about 15 cm long, with kernels in purple, green, white and yellow. Families once dried and ground it for winter food.
At Tane Pond, Kurohime folklore meets weather lore: in drought, people reportedly carried its water to Togakushi Shrine to pray for rain; the tale says rain would then surely reach their village.
In 1966, illustrator Chihiro Iwasaki raised a scaffold at her Kurohime studio to set its floor exactly where Lake Nojiri came into view. She made picture books there; the cabin now stands beside the Fairy Tale Museum.
Kurohime Fairy Tale Museum opened in 1991 as the world’s only permanent display of Michael Ende’s materials. He sent drafts, notebooks, letters and personal objects; more than 2,000 items eventually reached Shinano.
Each spring, gardeners raise Kurohime’s cosmos from seeds collected here the previous autumn, then transplant the seedlings by hand. The flowers leave seeds for next year—a locally adapted cycle repeated year after year.
Mount Kurohime blocks the late-day sun on this east-facing flower slope. The local growers say its shorter sunshine helps Kurohime’s cosmos bloom earlier than those elsewhere.
Look closely at Kurohime’s cosmos: the “Sea Shell” cultivar has petals rolled into narrow tubes, while “Cupcake” grows petals fused into little cups—two flowers that barely look like daisies.
At nearby Ojika Marsh, two spring bloomers share the stage: around late April, yellow ryukinka spreads across the wetland while kobushi magnolia flowers add bright white accents.
Kurohime’s dahlia beds pack roughly 20,000 blooms into 1,200 plants across 60 varieties. Their flower calendar stretches from July into October, keeping the garden colorful well beyond summer.
