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Towada-Hachimantai NP, Aomori
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About 330 species—representing nearly all of Hakkoda’s flora—can be seen in this 7,500 m² garden at roughly 900 m elevation. Its marsh, rocks and woodland bring the mountain’s varied plant communities close together.
At the garden’s center, Gokuraku-numa (“Paradise Marsh”) sways with cotton grass. An Environment Ministry ranger recorded white-faced darters here in July–August; males have white faces, red chests and orange-spotted black abdomens.
Aomori Prefecture funded this alpine research station, while nearby Sukayu Onsen supported researchers’ daily lives. Botanist Hiroshi Kamba—son of the inn’s then-owner—also helped bring the 1929 project to Hakkoda.
After visiting European gardens, botanist Yoshiji Yoshii began shaping Hakkoda’s natural-style garden in 1927. It was opened to the public decades before Tohoku University’s Sendai garden was established in 1958.
This field station’s research can read ancient Hakkoda: scientists compared 24 pollen records to map vegetation before the Towada-a ash fall, about 2,000 years ago. The station has supported mountain plant research since 1929.
A 1928 experiment building still stands inside the garden and remains in use for student practicals. It is not a museum replica—the historic field station itself is still part of university teaching, though the building is not open to visitors.
The original rock garden blended alpine plants with Japanese garden design: Toranosuke Shibata arranged upright stones and stair-like rockwork, framing nearby Mount Io as borrowed scenery.
Hakkoda’s rock garden became a mountain-wide sampler: from 1931, staff collected alpine plants from Sakhalin, Hokkaido and peaks such as Hayachine, Iide, Akita-Komagatake and Zao—not just nearby slopes.
The garden’s small wetland hides sundew, a carnivorous plant whose sticky leaf hairs catch insects. It grows alongside cotton grass, bog cranberry and Asian skunk cabbage.
The garden’s short season comes in waves: June brings cotton grass and Asian skunk cabbage; mid-July, Hakusan rhododendron and daylily; September, goldenrod; and early October, shiratama-no-ki.
