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Chubu-Sangaku NP, Nagano
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Nearby Taisho Pond was born in Yakedake’s 1915 eruption; Tashiro was not. Its landscape emerged through older river shifts, sediment fans and landslide debris, in a sequence beginning about 26,000 years ago.
On his last day in Kamikochi in 1914, mountaineering pioneer Walter Weston visited Tashiro Pond. He described its mirror-like water reflecting Hotaka’s gray cliffs and shining snow.
Even in below-freezing weather, groundwater from Mt. Roppyaku and Mt. Kasumizawa keeps Tashiro Pond gently flowing, so it never freezes over completely. Frost still whitens the surrounding plants and trees.
In 1915, Tashiro Pond was more than 5 m deep. Sediment and dead aquatic plants have gradually filled it; today, most of the area is wetland, with smaller pools remaining.
Summer brings golden daylilies, orange Japanese azaleas and the aquatic ichō-baika-mo around Tashiro Pond, while sagisuge cotton grass carpets the nearby wetland.
Several small islands dot Tashiro’s shallow water, giving the scene a calm, miniature rice-paddy look. The official Kamikochi guide highlights this patchwork as one of the pond’s distinctive features.
Matsumoto’s conservation survey found different plants dominating different sides of the marsh: sphagnum moss to the east, sagisuge in the northwest, and yama-azegusuge in the southwest.
