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Hidakasanmyaku Erimo Tokachi NP, Hokkaido
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In a recorded Ainu tradition, kelp grew in a great lake at Poroshiri’s summit, where sea birds gathered and even seals and sea lions wintered—then rode the spring meltwater down to the sea.
In a Saru-region Ainu tale recorded from Matsuko Kawakami, a boy born across the sea learns his father is Poroshiri’s great kamuy. He journeys to the mountain and grows up to succeed him.
Wind-scoured patches of moss among the summit’s dwarf pines caught researchers’ attention: similar ground cover occurs in Alaska’s tundra. In 2024, they drilled a roughly 10 m borehole to investigate whether the ground stays frozen year-round.
A Biratori cultural-landscape record describes Poroshiri as the home of a kamuy and says people once refrained from climbing it out of deference to the deity. The mountain joined the nationally designated scenic site Pirika no ka on October 17, 2013.
Snowmelt and rain make the glacier-carved Seven Ponds Cirque look like a scatter of little pools, inspiring its name. The outermost moraine—a ridge of debris left by a glacier—formed about 18,000 years ago.
Forestry workers built Poroshiri’s hut as an emergency shelter in 1965, and a local mountain association grew around caring for the mountain. Its members still maintain trails and even haul used portable-toilet waste back down.
In Ainu, “poro” means “big” and “shiri” means “mountain”—an apt name for this 2,052 m summit, the highest point in the national park and the only peak in the Hidaka Range above 2,000 m.
