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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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A 1936 guidebook put Obako on its cover and called it Sounkyo’s foremost scenic wonder. Reaching it once meant wading through water up to chest depth; an upstream dam later changed the river’s flow.
About 30,000 years ago, an eruption blanketed this valley with ash and pumice. The hot deposits welded into rock and cracked into columns as they cooled; the Ishikari River then spent about 10,000 years carving Obako’s gorge.
The eruption’s deposits blocked the Ishikari and created ancient Lake Daisetsu upstream of Obako. Gravel-and-sand layers high on the cliffs are clues that the river once flowed above today’s gorge.
In late December, frost flowers at Obako once formed what looked like a tiny stream along the riverbank. Water vapor froze onto small ice bumps, growing into buds, fluffy blossoms and scattered crystals in 3 delicate bands.
The geopark records an Ainu name for Obako: Shuop-nisey, glossed as “box cliff.” Its meaning echoes the Japanese name 大函, or “great box,” though that resemblance alone doesn’t establish how the Japanese name originated.
Watch the Ishikari at Obako for the Brown Dipper, a 22-cm stream bird regularly seen here. Despite its crow-like Japanese name and dark plumage, it dives underwater to catch aquatic insects.
