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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Shizuoka
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For about a week around April 20 and again around August 20, the sun rises over Mount Fuji’s summit from Lake Tanuki. On a calm morning, its reflection creates a second bright “diamond” on the water.
Local legend says that during a drought, Yoshino’s daughter plunged into the old pond and became a serpent—the pond’s guardian. People later prayed there for rain, a story rooted in farmers’ dependence on water.
The lake began as a marsh, not an empty basin: debris from ancient Fuji was blocked by the Tenso mountains, while water-resistant ground, runoff and springs helped water collect there.
The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake was followed by a drop in Shibakawa River water, which local rice fields depended on. Shizuoka expanded the old marsh with dams in 1935–36 to secure irrigation water.
A 1936 tunnel diverts water from the Ōbora River north of the lake to help keep its supply steady. Today the reservoir holds about 1.2 million cubic meters and helps water 900 hectares of rice fields.
Before it became a lake, the marsh was called Tanuki-numa or Chōja-ga-ike (“Wealthy Man’s Pond”). Local stories link the names to a retired priest, Tanuki Jirō, and to a charcoal burner who made a fortune.
About 500 meters north of Lake Tanuki is the separate Kodanuki Wetland, the only surviving wetland on Fuji’s western foothills. It has 63 recorded plant species and 29 dragonfly species, and is listed as an important wetland by Japan’s Environment Ministry.
In 1997, Japan’s Environment Agency chose the Lake Tanuki area as the first site for its Fureai Shizen Juku nature-school project. Planned activities included canoe lessons, forestry, local folktales, dragonfly ponds and night hikes.
Lake Tanuki’s roughly 350 Somei-yoshino cherry trees usually flower about 2 weeks later than those in central Fujinomiya. The lake sits high enough that spring arrives on its own schedule.
In early summer, Genji fireflies appear along the lake’s north side. The local visitor information describes them glowing there from late June into early July—a little-known night-time chapter in the lake’s seasonal wildlife.
