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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Toyama
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From 1969 until 2024, sightseeing boats crossed Lake Kurobe at a full-pool elevation of 1,448 m—the highest-altitude cruise in Japan. The final vessel, Garube, made its last run after 55 years of service.
The reservoir submerged a 1926 suspension bridge, the old Hirano hut and a natural hot spring at a historic mountain crossing. Today, a free ferry carries hikers across Lake Kurobe, keeping that trail link alive.
About 300 tonnes of driftwood are lifted from Lake Kurobe each year. A local company reuses it for “Kurobe no Kiseki” crafts, including bookends echoing the dam’s arch and calendars modeled on its spillway.
Workers at the freezing construction camp got curry about once a week. Afterward, it became Omachi’s “Arch Curry”—forerunner of today’s dam curry, where arched rice forms the dam and sauce becomes the lake.
The lake’s water travels about 10 km through the mountain to a power station with a 545.5 m drop. To preserve national-park scenery and avoid winter snow, the station and its switchyard were built underground.
Though it looks like an alpine lake, Lake Kurobe is a reservoir covering about 349 hectares; at full capacity it holds nearly 200 million cubic metres—about 161 Tokyo Domes of water.
Lake Kurobe was named at the dam’s 1963 completion ceremony. It is also known as Ōtagaki-ko, or “Lake Ōtagaki,” honoring Kansai Electric president Shiro Ōtagaki, who chose to pursue the project.
A 1973 fisheries survey found that Lake Kurobe’s water stayed around or below 20°C throughout the year. Researchers netted 81 rainbow trout and 35 char in the sampled areas—a chilly setting for cold-water fish.
