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Towada-Hachimantai NP, Aomori
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Yasumiya’s hime-masu specialty began with 50,000 eggs brought from Hokkaido’s Lake Shikotsu. Wainai Sadayuki stocked the fry in 1903; by autumn 1905 the fish had returned to spawn, turning an empty lake into a local food source.
In the lake’s legend, monk Nanso-bo and the eight-headed serpent Hachirotaro fought for 7 days and nights. Nanso-bo became a nine-headed dragon and won, becoming the lake’s guardian spirit in the story.
The bronze maidens were modeled by 19-year-old professional model Fujii Teruko—not simply cast as portraits of sculptor Takamura Kotaro’s wife. Friends noticed a resemblance to Chieko, but Takamura never confirmed that interpretation.
Local history says Wainai’s wife, Katsu, pawned her kimono, comb and cherished watch to help fund the fish eggs. She and her husband are now enshrined at Wainai Shrine in O-kawa-dai, across the lake.
Towada Shrine was more than a local sanctuary: the Nanbu domain counted it and Osorezan among its 2 great sacred sites. Pilgrims brought together reverence for the lake’s spirit and Buddhist traditions, and Towada worship spread across northern Tohoku.
Despite its romantic name, the 1953 Maidens statue is also a public memorial. It honors poet Omachi Keigetsu, Aomori governor Takeda Chiyosaburo and local leader Ogasawara Koichi for their roles in Towada’s history.
At the lakeside Uranai-ba, pilgrims once scattered rice and coins toward the sacred inner lake to pray or seek omens. Coins recovered in the Meiji era included centuries-old Chinese Tang- and Song-era cash.
Five old pilgrimage routes—3 from Aomori and 2 from Akita—once led to Towada Shrine. At the entrance, a giant ginkgo marked the meeting point; mountain ascetics reportedly gathered beneath it before continuing to the lake.
Takamura cast both bronze figures from the same mold, linking them to his idea of seeing one’s reflection while peering into an unknown inner world. Their concave eyes were designed to catch a viewer’s gaze from any angle.
At the shrine, people dedicate tiny sandals made of iron or tin, praying for strong legs and safe journeys. The custom honors Nanso-bo, the legendary monk said to have wandered Japan in straw sandals.
In May and June, frogs calling near the shrine’s purification basin sound so much like a dragon that local guides make the comparison. Summer nights bring tiny Hime fireflies to the same area.
The lakeside neighborhood straddles a prefectural border: across Kanda River lies Akita’s Yasumitai. At the river mouth, Ryogoku Bridge makes the boundary between Akita and Aomori especially easy to spot.
On the shrine grounds, a sacred tree called Onagi has a hollow where visitors place coins and pray for safe childbirth or children—a small, easily overlooked tradition among Yasumiya’s old trees.
Yasumiya means “rest house,” a name tied to pilgrims who stayed here on their way to Towada Shrine. The cedar approach runs about 900 meters; in 1807, traveler Sugae Masumi described visitors lodging in the area.
Residents have a tiny seasonal forecast: when the ginkgo at the entrance to the shrine’s cedar avenue has dropped all its leaves, they say Yasumiya’s first snow is near.
Before powered boats arrived in the early Taisho years, each lakeside inn sent out its own traditional Japanese boats. Yasumiya Harbor was officially designated in 1955 and became Japan’s first lake port recognized as a Minato Oasis in 2011.
The statue was first planned for Nenokuchi, at the lake’s northeastern end. A dispute among park and cultural-property authorities changed the plan, and the 1953 memorial was installed at Yasumiya instead.
Beside the shrine’s hand-washing place, a stone marker still clearly bears Bunsei 10 (1827), the year shogun Ienari ruled. The local history guide says it may record someone’s offering of a stone torii.
