Lake Chuzenji was added to Your Favorites!
Nikko NP, Tochigi
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
A 2.2-meter stone pagoda stands on tiny Kōzukeshima (Uenoshima) in Lake Chuzenji. Its inscription records that it was built in 1702 as a memorial reliquary for the skull bone of Shōdō Shōnin.
For millennia, Lake Chuzenji had no fish: 97-meter Kegon Falls blocked fish from swimming upstream, and the sacred lake was once off-limits to stocking. The first char were released in 1873.
Each autumn, Hime-masu (kokanee) run from Lake Chuzenji into the Yukawa to spawn. Their red spawning colors inspired a local saying that the lake’s fall colors begin underwater; the fish also helped shape local food culture.
Local legend says the gods of Mt. Nantai and Mt. Akagi fought over Lake Chuzenji as a giant snake and centipede. Archer Sarumaro ended the battle by shooting the centipede’s eye; nearby Senjogahara is their mythical battlefield.
At the resort’s peak, more than 40 foreign merchants’ and embassy villas lined the shore. Ambassadors raced yachts almost weekly, and boats even served for everyday trips between villas and shops.
Around 20,000 years ago, lava from Mt. Nantai blocked the Daiya River and formed Lake Chuzenji. The lake’s eastern outlet then drops 97 meters at Kegon Falls—two dramatic features born from the same landscape change.
Scottish merchant and fly-fishing enthusiast Thomas Glover helped stock Lake Chuzenji for sportfishing. He financed imports of brook trout from Colorado in both 1902 and 1904.
“Honmasu” is a local name for a hybrid trout, not a formally recognized species. Hatchery work crossed Biwa trout with sakura-masu (cherry salmon), creating a fish associated with Lake Chuzenji.
British diplomat Ernest Satow first visited Oku-Nikko in 1872 and built his lakeside villa in 1896. Travel writer Isabella Bird stayed there too, writing to a friend about the remarkable view.
A boat once owned by the Belgian Embassy villa is preserved at the lakeside boathouse. Built in the early Shōwa era, it combined Western oars with Japanese rowing gear and could carry 4 rowers.
At 1,269 meters, Lake Chuzenji is Japan’s highest lake among natural lakes of at least 4 square kilometers—a comparison that excludes artificial reservoirs. Its cool altitude helped draw summer visitors and diplomats.
Even in snowy Oku-Nikko, the open lake seldom freezes. Nikko’s Natural Science Museum suggests that its roughly 160-meter depth encourages water circulation and wind keeps the surface moving, though sheltered bays may ice over.
Lake Chuzenji takes its name from Chūzenji Temple, founded by Shōdō Shōnin in 784. The lake itself is far older: it formed when Mt. Nantai’s volcanic activity dammed a river around 20,000 years ago.
