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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Nagano / Gunma
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In the Edo period, a shorter Kusatsu–Zenkoji route through Yoshigadaira and Shibu Pass drew travelers away from inns on the Nirei Road. After complaints, the shogunate banned the shortcut—but people kept using it.
Shibu Pass Hotel began in 1951 as an unstaffed Gunma prefectural rescue and evacuation hut. After a caretaker moved in and the border was surveyed, its owners discovered the building crossed into Nagano, too.
At nearby Yoshigadaira Wetland, records describe a floating island in Kobuta Pond from the Edo period into the early Showa era. People climbed aboard, and it was revered as Kobuta Myojin; vegetation later swallowed the pond, and its exact site is now lost.
The old Kusatsu Road over Shibu linked Zenkoji and Kusatsu Onsen. Packhorses carried rice, vegetables, and seafood across the mountains, while pilgrims heading to Zenkoji traveled the same route.
Along the old Kusatsu-road approach from Shiga, 33 stone Kannon figures were installed in 1819. Local tradition says they were placed to pray for the safety of travelers and people working on the road.
The 2,172 m national-highway high-point marker is not at the border hotel: it stands 750 m farther toward Gunma. The hotel is at 2,152 m, and Nagano Prefecture’s map places the road’s highest point in Gunma.
Before the modern road, the footpath near Shibu Pass squeezed beneath Yokote Mountain’s steep cliff at Nozoki Valley. Historical descriptions say the passage was barely wide enough for one person.
Near Shibu Pass, survey point No. 10809 was installed as Japan’s highest-elevation level benchmark. It is a quiet piece of scientific infrastructure in the same high mountain landscape as the famous road marker.
After winter closures, snowplows reveal a temporary snow corridor on the Kusatsu-bound road near Shibu Pass. In 2025, Environment Ministry rangers recorded walls about 5 m high, roughly 2 km from the pass hotel.
Shibu’s old crossing fell quiet after the Shin’etsu railway opened in 1893 and rail reached Kusatsu in 1926. The mountain route returned for road travelers when the Shiga–Kusatsu route opened in 1965.
