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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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JMA says repeated steam explosions began on Mt. Asahidake about 1,000 years ago, forming small craters including Sugatami Pond. The pond sits in a surprisingly young volcanic crater.
The trail holds a curious industrial trace: sulfur was mined on Asahidake in the 1940s for gunpowder. A guide notes that the old work path remains between the Fourth Lookout and a fumarole.
Sugatami Pond earns its mirror-like reputation on calm days: it reflects Mt. Asahidake and its white volcanic plume. Snow and autumn colors can appear in the water, too.
At Asahidake’s base, the climbing-season opening includes Nupurikoro Kamuynomi, an Ainu ceremony praying for hikers’ safety. The gathering features traditional song and dance, a bonfire and a torch procession.
Around the smaller pools on Sugatami’s trail, a few steps reveal different habitats: waterlogged pond beds lack plants, late-melting snowbanks support low herbs, and higher ground holds dwarf pine.
The Daisetsuzan Love Bell beside the pond remembers 10 members of a Hakodate university mountaineering club who died in the 1962–63 Asahidake blizzard. Its sound was also meant to guide hikers lost in fog or snow toward the pond.
Snow usually covers the Sugatami Pond area from late September through June—about two-thirds of the year, according to the Daisetsuzan National Park Council. The alpine summer is wonderfully brief.
On the same loop, Kagami-ike and Suribachi-ike are known together as Meoto-ike, or “couple ponds.” Their names—Mirror Pond and Mortar Pond—make a charming companion story to Sugatami.
Kamikawa Ainu names for the Daisetsuzan range include “Nutap Kamuy Sir” and “Nutap Ka Us Pe.” Its mystical mountains and alpine-flower landscapes are also called “Kamuy Mintar”—the playground of the gods.
