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Minami Alps NP, Shizuoka
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On Maedake’s Nagano flank, the Arakawa landslide keeps feeding Hirogawara, a stony plain about 200–300 m wide and 1.5 km long. Heavy rain can send fresh debris down its streams.
After major logging in 1760–1764, nearby Ogawara officials reported in 1766 that large cypress and arborvitae had been lost to rockslides, floods and forest decay. The shogunate investigated; maps dated 1763 and 1769 survive.
The “Arakawa flower garden” is a patchwork of 3 plant communities in a snowbed: tall alpine flowers, low-growing herbs and bare-ground specialists. It spans roughly 100 m across and 200 m up the slope.
Researchers found Kikai-Akahoya ash, about 7,300 years old, beneath soil in Maedake’s southeast cirque. It shows that parts of the lower slope had largely stabilized by then, while higher slopes still shed debris.
Maedake’s southeast cirque preserves glacial-era moraines and a fossil rock glacier. Researchers also found newer rockfall and debris-flow deposits there, showing how the landscape kept changing after its glacier disappeared.
Japan’s ptarmigan are a southern, isolated population of a bird widespread across northern regions. The native subspecies reached Japan during the last Ice Age, and the Arakawa peaks remain part of its alpine habitat.
Seasonal deer fences protect the flower meadows on Maedake’s southeast slope and nearby cirque. The trail passes through a gate in the fence, so rangers ask hikers to close it behind them to keep sika deer out.
Despite the “Red Stone” name of the Akaishi range, Maedake’s summit is made of sandstone. Red chert is noted near neighboring Warusawadake—so the rocks change character from peak to peak.
