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Kushiro Shitsugen NP, Hokkaido
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Lake Toro is freshwater today, yet the marine crustacean kuro-isaza-ami still lives here as a relict species—a tiny living clue that this inland wetland was once beneath the sea.
In 2019, researchers rediscovered the critically endangered Karafuto-kuwai at Lake Toro after about 30 years without a Japanese record. Deer-protection fences helped its range expand by 2024.
Ainu people called the lake’s water-caltrop nuts pekanpe. Gathered from canoes by turning over floating leaves, they were boiled or dried for winter; a local account recorded a family still harvesting them in 2022.
Until about 1990, Ainu people of the Tōro kotan held a September ceremony thanking the kamuy for the pekanpe harvest and praying for safe gathering. Afterward, they paddled out singing; a 1958 film recorded the rite.
When Lake Toro’s frozen surface expands and cracks, the ice can buckle into a raised ridge called omiwatari, or ‘god’s crossing.’ A park ranger also recorded deep booms echoing beneath the ice.
At Lake Toro’s smelt hatchery, workers use a bird feather to mix eggs and milt gently, avoiding damage to the eggs. Once the young fish can swim, a small stainless-steel slide sends them toward the lake.
Explorer Matsuura Takeshirō recorded 16 houses at Tōro in 1858; a local museum study notes that 10 households already counted as a large village then. He also left drawings of Lake Toro and nearby settlements.
In one recorded snapshot, just 3 of about 30 cooperative members fished for smelt, to avoid taking too many. Others helped process the catch, while canoe guiding brought extra income when fishing alone was not enough.
A historic building by Lake Toro once served as the headquarters of the Kushiro Prison Branch, whose inmates worked on roads, river dredging, and sulfur mining. The building was moved to the lakeshore in 1969 and later served as a local museum.
The dragonfly Aeshna subarctica is described by the park network as an Ice Age relict. Adults can be seen around Lake Toro from July to early October.
