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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Nagano
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Nekodake and neighboring Azumaya are peaks on the rim of the same volcano’s summit caldera. Past volcanic activity carved the broad saddle between them, known as Ōsukima—the “Big Gap.”
Umebachisō, Nekodake’s signature flower, follows a tiny timetable: its 5 stamens rise one per day, and only after all are upright does the central stigma lengthen, helping prevent self-pollination.
At the trailhead, Sugadaira Ranch serves soft-serve made with freshly milked cow’s milk—a local treat at the foot of Nekodake, where the open slopes meet a working cattle pasture.
A low-growing plant called kuromame-no-ki is more than alpine greenery: on Nekodake, it serves as food for the caterpillars of the rare alpine butterfly Miyama-monki-chō.
The working pasture below Nekodake opened in 1883 as Hokushin Ranch and later became Sugadaira Ranch. Its early role included raising cattle and horses for farm work and hauling freight.
Nekodake’s “Flower 100 Mountains” reputation is easy to understand in summer: Ueda’s tourism association says flowers bloom along almost the whole trail, with matsumushisō and umebachisō among its signature blooms.
In June, bright red-orange Japanese azaleas (rengツツジ) color Nekodake’s slopes. The cooler mountain can keep flowering after blossoms have faded in the lowlands.
The grassy west slope is not simply wild scenery: Nagano Prefecture identifies its secondary grassland, shaped from hay-cutting and grazing land, as an important feeding area for rare raptors.
A 1722 shogunate boundary ruling called Nekodake 根小嶽; local histories also record 弥固岳 and 猫岳. At the summit, a small stone shrine preserves another form: 禰固岳神社.
Nekodake’s first-order triangulation marker, labeled 猫岳, sits on neighboring 小根子岳—about 80 vertical meters below the mountain’s high summit. A survey point and a summit are not always the same spot.
