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Towada-Hachimantai NP, Akita
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About 200 m across and nearly circular, Onuma still has no settled origin: explanations point to volcanic activity or a hollow beside the Hanawa Fault. Peat and sediment are slowly shrinking its open water.
A photo from around 1956 shows boats floating on Onuma. The machinery from that old boat landing was later reused as part of today’s observation deck—a lakeside lookout with a second life.
Around the south-side pools, sundews sparkle like they’re covered in dew—but those glistening beads are sticky fluid that traps insects. Despite its Japanese name, mousengoke (“moss carpet”), this is a seed plant, not a moss.
Hachimantai visitor-center naturalists report gaku-urajiro-youraku at just one spot in the Onuma area. Its dangling bell-shaped flowers inspired “Yoraku,” a name likening them to jeweled Buddhist ornaments.
Onuma’s bog supports isotsutsuji, whose name sounds as if it belongs on a seashore—but it doesn’t grow there. Hachimantai visitor-center staff say the name likely shifted from Ezo-tsutsuji in local speech.
The soft white tufts waving over Onuma’s wetland are cotton grass seed heads, not flowers. Each seed is wrapped in downy fibers, ready to catch the breeze and travel.
