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Shikotsu-Tōya NP., Hokkaido
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By day, “Shikotsuko Blue” is not paint: builders spray unfiltered lake water, and its exceptionally clear ice absorbs red light more readily than blue. After dark, lamps add the color.
Japan’s northernmost ice-free lake hosts an ice festival made by spraying its open water. Shikotsu’s great depth and volume delay freezing; public records list just 4 full freezes: 1913, 1953, 1978 and 2001.
The sculptures are made from Shikotsu water, and hydroelectricity generated with lake water powers the display lights—a neat case of the lake supplying both the art and its nighttime glow.
The festival began in 1979 to bring visitors back during the quiet winter season, inspired by Sōunkyō’s earlier ice-fall festival. Local innkeepers, sightseeing-boat captains and city staff built it together.
At the first festival, ice sculptures were sprayed from a fishing boat, while airline cabin crew posed for a photo shoot and spirited ice-fishing taiko drums sounded—a memorable opening for an airport city.
Ice-making here is a weather puzzle: warm spray melts the sculptures, but in severe cold droplets freeze before landing. Builders read the wind and temperature, then adjust the sprinklers’ angles.
Around 10 lake-area workers—including nature guides, Himemasu fishers and rental-boat staff—make the sculptures. The art is a community collaboration shaped by the same lake that supplies its water.
The hidden framework has a lower-waste side: some sculptures reuse wood removed during nearby forest care, and some plastic fishing-net mesh has been replaced with biodegradable netting.
In 氷濤 (hyōtō), 濤 means a rolling wave—not a waterfall: the name evokes Shikotsu’s winter lake spray. Nearby Sōunkyō’s 氷瀑 uses 瀑, the character for a waterfall.
For the 2025 festival, builders evoked nearby Koke no Domon, a moss-lined ravine. They tied pine branches removed during forest thinning near Shichijo Falls onto the sculpture’s frame before spraying it with water.
On February 14, 2024, an unusually warm spell softened and broke some sculptures, forcing the festival to close 11 days early—the first early closure in its 46-year history.
