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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Toyama
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Midagahara’s pools are nicknamed Gaki-no-ta, “fields of hungry ghosts.” In Buddhist lore, spirits in hell plant rice here to ease their hunger: the pond sedge looks like rice, but never produces grain.
The joint Tateyama Midagahara–Dainichidaira wetland is Japan’s highest Ramsar site, registered in 2012. Toyama Prefecture counts about 3,000 tiny ponds on Midagahara itself, scattering mirror-like pools across the plateau.
Volcanic eruptions built Midagahara’s broad plateau about 120,000–130,000 years ago. Researchers think glacier-melt floods later spread 20–30 metres of rocky debris over it; peat began accumulating on top around 7,500 years ago.
Across the registered Tateyama wetland, average snowfall reaches about 5 metres, and snow stays on the ground for more than 200 days—from mid-November to late June. Annual precipitation can reach 5,000–6,000 millimetres.
The wider Midagahara–Dainichidaira Ramsar landscape is a wintering ground for Japan’s rock ptarmigan. The birds breed at higher elevations, then descend into subalpine habitat for winter.
The marsh’s main plant layer is made up of herbs rather than trees. Its species include sundew, a tiny insect-eating plant, as well as endangered orchid and sedge species; the ponds have their own distinctive plant communities.
A 2017 botanical study of the Midagahara–Tengudaira area confirmed 10 species and 4 varieties of peat moss. Among them, 3 species and 1 variety were newly recorded from the area in that study.
One recorded Tateyama legend links Midagahara’s name to Amida Buddha: the monk Shinran was said to see purple clouds, a fragrance like incense and Amida’s figure here. In early Meiji, the name was also changed to 御田原 to remove Buddhist associations.
