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Shikotsu-Tōya NP., Hokkaido
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Each September, an Ainu ceremony beside the Toyohira welcomes the year’s first salmon and offers it to kamuy. Asir Cep Nomi disappeared after Meiji-era salmon-fishing bans, then was revived in 1982 after about a century.
At Jōzankei, 56 hot-spring sources cluster mainly near Tsukimibashi and Takayamabashi. Most rise naturally through cracks in the rock along the Toyohira’s banks and bed.
After pollution stopped salmon returns, juvenile releases restarted in the Toyohira in 1979, following a 30-year pause. Those fish came back to spawn in 1981; natural spawning has been confirmed every year since 1985.
The Toyohira supplies about 98% of Sapporo’s tap water. Rain and snow soak into the forested headwaters, then water is stored in the Toyohirakyō and Jōzankei dams before flowing toward the city.
The river’s salmon-revival story began long before the famous comeback movement: in 1878, a hatchery at Sapporo’s Kairakuen collected 60,000 eggs from Toyohira salmon. The following year, 94 marked young fish were released.
The Toyohira’s first hydroelectric station opened at Jōzankei in 1909 and remains Hokkaido’s oldest operating plant. Nearby Shiraito Falls has an unexpected link: its water comes from the station’s overflow.
The Toyohira’s salmon story reaches back far beyond modern restoration: remains of ancient fish-weir fences used to catch salmon have been found around the river, evidence of a long relationship between people and its fish.
Sapporo grew on a gravel fan built by the Toyohira, whose channel once wandered in several directions. Water seeped into the gravel and later emerged as spring pools called mem near what is now Sapporo Station.
A rough log bridge built across the Toyohira in 1871 was swept away after only 3 months. Bridges were repeatedly washed out through the Meiji era—a vivid reminder of how forcefully the river once flooded and shifted.
Sapporo’s municipal guide records the river’s former Ainu name as Sapporo-pet, interpreted as “dry, great river.” Toyohira comes from Toye-pira, “crumbling cliff,” a landmark near Toyohira Bridge.
The neighborhood called Suishachō, or “Waterwheel Town,” earned its name: 7 mills operated along a Toyohira tributary from the 1890s into the late 1920s, using the stream to mill rice and grain.
Since 1999, Toyohira salmon surveys have estimated returning adult numbers by counting spawning beds, rather than catching and counting the fish. A salmon’s nest is part of how researchers measure the river’s recovery.
