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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Kanagawa
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In the neighboring Sengokuhara wetland—not on the susuki slope—researchers recorded Kanagawa’s first Shiroashi loosestrife bee. Its females collect plant oils, not nectar, mixing them with pollen for larvae and lining underground brood cells.
A 2025 survey found 4 bee species rare in Kanagawa along the grassland path. One, Yamate-mame-himehanabachi, has no other known home in the prefecture; researchers watched it visit angelica and fleabane flowers.
In 1880, Shibusawa Eiichi and his partners opened a ranch in Sengokuhara, first planning to raise sheep for wool. The land proved unsuitable, so they pivoted to cattle and sold milk and butter as far away as Tokyo.
For generations, Sengokuhara villagers used the grassland as shared ground, gathering susuki for thatched roofs and grasses for cattle and horses. They also worked together to burn the land and keep it open.
One local story links the old name 千石原村 to a hoped-for harvest of 1,000 koku of rice. The twist: volcanic-ash soil and wet ground made rice difficult to grow, while susuki suited the land far better.
This susuki grassland was once lakebed. Volcanic changes altered the basin’s drainage, leaving the neighboring lowland to become wetland—a striking reason dry-looking hillside and marsh sit side by side here.
The path’s bare-looking edges are not barren: a survey found a small plant community there averaging 9 species and just 18 cm tall. Mowing and moderate foot traffic help keep this miniature habitat open.
When burning stopped in the 1970s, trees began reclaiming the slope; trial burns restarted on the Tai-ga-dake side in 1989. After a spring burn, fresh susuki shoots can appear by mid-April.
