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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Nagano
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Norikura Kogen is Japan’s only confirmed breeding site for the endemic collar-winged bat (kubiwa-kōmori), a tiny species just 5–6 cm long. Local volunteers monitor it and built a dedicated “bat house.”
At 1,200–1,300 m, rice was hard to grow, so native Bansho buckwheat became a staple. Winter toji soba warms small portions in bamboo baskets dipped into a shared hot pot—a dish once served at weddings.
Norikura’s Bansho cucumber looks like a tiny spiky creature: short, thick and knobbly, unlike the usual slender cucumber. Grown here since at least the early 20th century, this Shinshu heritage vegetable was traditionally pickled.
The name Zengoro Falls comes from a local Edo-period tale: a fisherman hooked a giant char that nearly pulled him into the plunge pool. He escaped in terror; the waterfall has carried his name ever since.
From July to early September, Norikura’s home-style grape-leaf sushi wraps rice and salted trout in fresh mountain-grape leaves. The leaves lend a fruity scent, making this brief summer specialty unlike ordinary wrapped sushi.
At nearby Shirakaba Pass, migration can bring up to 3,000 hawks in a single day; 16 species have been recorded. Rising on thermals, they spiral upward together in a twisting “hawk pillar” over the Norikura area.
Artifacts from Izawa Ruins show people lived in Norikura about 8,000 years ago, gathering nuts, yams and wild greens, fishing the streams and hunting deer and boar—an alpine home long before inns and ski lifts.
Local legend links 3 waters with one dragon: its head lies at Gongen Pond on Mt. Norikura, its body in Oike Pond in the highland, and its tail reaches Lake Suwa. Villagers say disturbing Oike can summon storms.
Norikura folklore says that in 1585 fugitive lord Miki Hidetsuna hid in a farmer’s silkworm basket while fleeing through the village. After his death, the household’s thriving silkworms inspired villagers to worship him as a sericulture deity.
Ichinose’s orange azaleas are a grazing legacy: cattle ate most other plants but avoided the toxic azaleas, keeping meadows open. With grazing gone, woods advanced, so residents and park staff now work to restore grassland.
Several flows from Mt. Norikura filled deep ravines to build the highland. Where the lava tongues ended, cliffs and falls formed; the celebrated trio—Sanbon, Zengoro and Bandokoro waterfalls—marks those old flow edges.
The onsen here come from 3 distinct springs: milky sulfur water piped down from Mt. Norikura, a clear mild spring bubbling on the plateau, and mineral-rich water drawn from 1,300 m underground.
Under the Matsumoto domain, Onogawa men cut timber and floated it downstream; women and children farmed hemp and buckwheat in seasonal huts as high as 1,600 m, returning to their home villages after harvest.
A 1927–28 ski camp helped spark Norikura’s ski-guide trade: 5 local men guided visitors, earning ¥200 that winter—far more than the 70 sen paid for a bag of charcoal at the time.
On March 23, 2021, Norikura Kogen became Japan’s first registered Zero Carbon Park. Its hands-on efforts include thinning birches at Ichinose, reusing the wood, e-bike travel and refill stations.
