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Nikko NP, Gunma
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Before a 1930 hydropower intake, Suganuma’s outflow plunged over Haccho Falls toward Marunuma, about 300 m below. The project lowered the lake enough to expose the narrow links between its Shimizu, Benten, and Kitamata basins.
In 1913, people carried 42,284 hime-masu fry about 4 km from a hatchery at neighboring Marunuma in buckets. Only 31 died on the journey—a remarkable first stocking for this high-mountain lake.
Researchers measured 19 m of underwater visibility in Suganuma’s main basin in 1905–06. A later fishery review noted that subsequent measurements never matched this remarkable early reading.
At Suganuma Yamagoya, a high mountain-pass teahouse near the lake, yamame-don arrives with a whole yamame atop rice and seasonal vegetables—a striking one-fish, one-bowl meal.
Researchers found invasive North American signal crayfish in all 3 basins; 15 overnight traps caught 187. Tiny signal leeches living on them led scientists to infer the crayfish population may have come from Hokkaido.
In 2012, researchers found char in a tributary feeding Suganuma at 1,740 m—the highest elevation fish had then been confirmed in Gunma. They suspected the char had been stocked rather than naturally occurring there.
Suganuma Camp Village beside the lake served as a filming location for the 2006 Japanese romance film Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru, giving this secluded mountain setting an unexpected role in a movie love story.
