Erimo えりも町

• Erimo (えりも / 襟裳) comes from the Ainu word enrum, meaning a headland or cape⁵. The cape's Ainu name is Onne-enrum (オンネエンルㇺ). Onne means "great, old" and enrum means "a place that juts out, a cape"¹⁴¹⁵.
• The "mouse" theory: a competing explanation links the name to erum (mouse). Matsuura Takeshirō wrote that the cape looks like a crouching mouse when seen from far off. Tani Genta's (谷元旦) Ezo Kikō compared the offshore rocks to a mouse's tail¹⁴. A local legend gives the cape the nickname "Mouse Cape" (ねずみ岬). In the story, an Ainu man at the cape saw an eleven-faced bodhisattva riding a white mouse¹⁶.
• Horoizumi (幌泉), the old name of the town and the district's name today, is usually traced to poro-enrum ("big cape"), the Ainu name for Cape Erimo. Old kanji spellings include 保呂泉 and 保老泉. The shogunate interpreter Uehara Kumajirō wrote in 1824 that it came instead from pon-enrum ("small cape"). He probably meant the sand spit at today's Honchō-Yamato¹. The town's own plan gives the original form as "ホルエンルン"⁹.

• Ainu era. Cape Erimo was a sacred place, where Ainu set up inau (ritual whittled sticks) and offered sake (see Ainu heritage)¹⁷.
• 1669. Kakizaki Kurando, a retainer of the Matsumae domain, opened a trading post (商場) for exchange with the Ainu. The same year, the chronicle Tsugaru Ittōshi (津軽一統志) recorded Utabetsu, Aburakoma, Cape Erimo and Shoya⁹⁴. The post later became the Horoizumi basho (幌泉場所). It stood first at Aburakoma (today's Tōyō district) and later at Horoizumi (today's Honchō)¹.
• 1789. Ogoshi, today's Erimo-misaki, was called a "3,000-koku kombu basho" and had a trading-post station⁴.
• 1799–1800. As Russian pressure grew, the shogunate paid to cut the Saruru Mountain Road (猿留山道), about 30 km long and one of the first public roads in Ezo. Inō Tadataka surveyed along it in 1800¹⁸.
• 1819. Takadaya Kahei (高田屋嘉兵衛) took over the Horoizumi basho contract⁴.
• 1869. On 15 August 1869 the area was named Horoizumi District in Hidaka Province⁹.
• Settlers. Fishing settlers from Honshu were here about 300 years ago¹¹. The Erimo Koma-odori folk dance was started by settlers from the Nanbu area of Tōhoku¹⁸. Firewood cutting, grazing and locusts stripped the cape's forest, and by the early Shōwa era it was called the "Erimo Desert" (襟裳砂漠)¹¹.
• 1889. Cape Erimo Lighthouse was first lit. The town chronology calls it Hokkaido's only first-order lighthouse⁴. It was destroyed in an air raid on 15 July 1945 and rebuilt in 1950⁷.
• 1906. The nine villages became Horoizumi Village, with 3,131 people⁹¹.
• 1934. The Golden Road opened after seven years of work¹².
• 1953 onward: reforestation. Red soil from the bare cape blew up to 10 km out to sea and choked the kombu beds. In 1953 the Forestry Agency began a full project with local fishermen as workers. In 1957 they developed the "Erimo method" (えりも式緑化工法), holding seed down with gota (ゴタ), the mixed seaweed that washes ashore. By 1970, 192 ha had grass cover, and by FY2009, 183 ha were forest, mainly black pine. Fish landings rose from 72 t in 1952 to 2,264 t in 2001¹¹. NHK's Project X told the story in 2001⁸.
• 1952–1960. Tsunamis in 1952 and 1960 damaged the fishing fleet⁴. The population peaked at 9,267 in 1955⁹.
• 1959–1970. Town status came in 1959 and the name Erimo in 1970⁴.
• 1970s–1990s. Tourism peaked at 700,000 visitors in FY1973⁹. In 1974 Mori Shinichi's "Erimo Misaki" (music by Yoshida Takurō) won the Japan Record Award⁸. The quasi-national park came in 1981 and Kaze-no-Yakata opened in 1997⁴.
• 2006–2011. The emperor and empress visited in 2006⁴. A monument at the cape carries the emperor's poem about the black pines⁷. In 2011 the Erimo Ōgon Tunnel was finished, and the 11 March tsunami damaged 130 fishing boats⁴.
• 2015–2021. Hidaka Main Line trains stopped after storm damage in January 2015⁶, and the line south of Mukawa closed on 1 April 2021⁵.
• 2018. The Saruru Mountain Road became a National Historic Site¹⁸.
• 2021. A red tide from mid-September 2021 hurt local fisheries¹⁹.
• 2024. On 25 June 2024, Hidaka Sanmyaku Erimo Tokachi National Park (日高山脈襟裳十勝国立公園) replaced the quasi-national park. At 245,668 ha, it is Japan's largest national park on land²⁰⁴.

• Landform. The town is an inverted triangle, with the Hidaka Mountains dropping into the Pacific at Cape Erimo. About 84% of the town is forest⁹. The town's plan gives the coastline as 58 km⁹. Japanese Wikipedia, citing a town research bulletin, gives 53.8 km⁵.
• Mountains and rivers. The main peaks are Toyoni-dake (豊似岳, 1,105 m), Kannon-dake (観音岳, 932 m) and Okishimappu-yama (オキシマップ山, 895 m). The main rivers are the Saruru and the Utabetsu⁵.
• Cape and coast. Cliffs up to 60 m high surround the cape, with well-developed marine terraces. A warm current from the west meets a cold one from the east offshore. This makes the area foggy but also a rich fishing ground¹¹⁸. The Erimo Seamount rises about 4,200 m from the sea floor about 185 km to the southeast, but its top is still 3,735 m below the surface⁷.
• Lake Toyoni (豊似湖) is the only natural lake in Hidaka. It is about 1 km around and up to 18 m deep, and it lies in old-growth forest. It is nicknamed "Heart Lake", and locals also call it "Horseshoe Lake". Pikas (エゾナキウサギ) live around it¹³. The town's plan also lists Japanese crayfish (ニホンザリガニ) and black woodpeckers (クマゲラ)⁹. Other water features are Hyakunin-hama beach and Hiren-numa pond⁵.
• Protected areas. Part of the town lies in Hidaka Sanmyaku Erimo Tokachi National Park, created in 2024. The park covers 1 city, 11 towns and 1 village²⁰.
• Climate (JMA Erimo-misaki AMeDAS, 1991–2020 normals): the annual mean is 7.4°C. February is the coldest month at −2.2°C and August the warmest at 17.7°C, with an average August daily high of only 19.9°C. Annual precipitation is 987.1 mm, mean wind speed 8.1 m/s and sunshine 1,926 hours²¹. Records: 28.5°C on 27 Aug 2023, −12.1°C on 9 Feb 2019, and a peak gust of 50.6 m/s from the north-northeast on 14 Dec 2025²². The station does not record snowfall²¹. Winter snow cover is thin, so seedlings and soil are exposed to the wind¹¹. Sea fog occurs on about 100 days a year⁷.

• Fisheries are the base of the economy. Output peaked at ¥9.3 billion in 1993 and fell to about ¥6.0 billion. With kelp-bed building and hatchery programmes it recovered to ¥6.2 billion in FY2024. The main problems are warming seas, harbor seals eating fish in the salmon set nets, and kombu harvests that swing from year to year. The main target species are kombu, autumn salmon, ma-tsubu whelk (エゾボラ), octopus and sandfish (ハタハタ)⁹.
• Kombu and salmon. A 2014 town page gives the kombu harvest as about 10,000 t a year, mostly shipped to Kansai, with a third of households involved. It gives salmon and trout landings as over 3,000 t a year, mostly from September–November set nets²³. Erimo Port also has a sea-urchin seed hatchery and a Hokkaido aquaculture centre⁹.
• Agriculture. Frequent fog means there is no rice or field-crop farming. Farms raise beef cattle, dairy cattle and light horses on hill pasture, and deer damage is a problem⁹. The town brand is Erimo Tankaku beef (えりも短角牛). The town says about 150 head of beef cattle were brought in during the Meiji era. Racehorses bred in Erimo include Erimo Shick and Erimo Excel²⁴.
• Workforce and population. In 2020, 51.1% of workers were in the primary sector. People aged 65 and over were 32.9% of the population, and the national population institute projects 2,219 residents by 2050⁹.
• Tourism. Hokkaido's survey counted 241,700 visitors in FY2025: 229,300 day-trippers and 12,400 overnight guests. August was the busiest month, with 58,600²⁵. Visitor numbers peaked at 700,000 in FY1973 and fell to 121,000 in FY2020 during COVID. The town's own plan uses a round figure of about 150,000 a year⁹.
• Furusato nōzei. Donations reached ¥787.8 million from 47,805 gifts in FY2025, compared with ¥231.6 million in FY2014, when return gifts were introduced²⁶. Donors can earmark funds to help businesses hit by the 2021 red tide¹⁹.
• Blue carbon. Clearing unwanted seaweed from the kombu beds earned J Blue Credits of 85.9 t-CO₂ for Dec 2023 to Nov 2024, which the town sells to companies²⁷.
• Companies. Local seafood processors and sellers include Erimo Shokuhin (えりも食品, Yamato), Maruden (マルデン, Fuemai) and Maruhachi Ōhira Suisan (丸八大平水産)²⁸. Hokkaido's first private wind farm, two 400 kW turbines, is also reported to be in Erimo (unverified)⁵.

• Performing arts. The Erimo Koma-odori (えりも駒踊り), a horse dance, and the Erimo Kagura (襟裳神楽), a lion-dance kagura from the Erimo-misaki district, are town-designated intangible cultural properties. The town has 12 designated cultural properties in all, including Edo-period stone monuments⁹¹⁸.
• Shrines and temples. The main shrines are Erimo Shrine (襟裳神社) at the cape, Sumiyoshi Shrine (住吉神社) in Honchō and Shoya Inari Shrine. Temples include Hōkō-ji (法光寺), Kashō-in (迦葉院) and Kōmyō-ji⁴¹. A legend dates the first shrine at the cape tip to 1814¹⁶.
• Museums. The Local History Museum "Horoizumi" & Fisheries Hall (郷土資料館「ほろいずみ」・水産の館, Shinhama 207) shows kombu specimens from Hokkaido and around the world, a wooden kombu boat and the town's history⁴². Entry is free. Hours are 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30). Closed Tuesdays, the day after public holidays, and over New Year⁴³. The Fisheries Hall opened in 1981 and the museum in 1992⁹.

• A sacred cape. Cape Erimo (Onne-enrum) was added in August 2010 to Pirika Noka (ピリカノカ), a group of Hokkaido places first designated in 2009 as Places of Scenic Beauty for their Ainu stories, prayers and place names¹⁵⁴⁴. Pirika noka means "beautiful form"¹⁵.
• Living place names. The reef rocks off the cape have Ainu names, and kombu fishers still use them to say where they are working¹⁵. Edo-period writers recorded Ainu inau offerings at the cape and a taboo on picking the "beard of Erimo-sama" kombu. Travelers crossing this dangerous stretch of coast relied on Ainu guides¹⁷.
• Place names inland. Lake Toyoni is called Kamuito (カムイトウ) in Ainu¹⁸. The 1942 list of old sub-district names is full of katakana names such as サルル (Saruru, now Meguro), コロップ and ウタベツ⁵.
• Legends and history. The town museum keeps Ainu legends, including the "golden boat" of the Nikanbetsu kotan and the bear-brothers Toyaipinna and Saruisan. People would call out that they were Saruisan's descendants to make bears run away. The museum also records a theory linking the name Hyakunin-hama to killings during the 1669 Shakushain's War¹⁶.
• Today. The Erimo Ainu Association (えりも町アイヌ協会) performs traditional dance at town events¹⁸. The town's 2026–2030 plan pledges to connect the Pirika Noka site with passing on local Ainu culture⁹.

None found. Erimo is not on CLAIR's list of international sister-city ties for Hokkaido municipalities⁶⁰, and no domestic partner city was found (unverified). At school level, Erimo High School has visited a sister school in South Korea, Musan Middle & High School (茂山中・高等学校), on its overseas study trip (as of a 2015 town page)²⁹.