Kamifurano 上富良野町

• The river name: the town is named after the Furano River (富良野川). A map attributed to Mamiya Rinzō (間宮林蔵, 1821) is the first record of the name, as "Furanui" (フラヌイ). Matsuura Takeshirō (松浦武四郎) wrote it as "Fūranui" in 1858.³⁰³¹
• Meaning: the town's centennial history reads it as Ainu hura-nu-i, "smell–have–place" (臭・を持つ・所).³¹ An 1886 settlement survey found the basin's rivers muddy and partly sulfurous, which fits the "smell" reading.³² The same history says the Pirika-Furano River (ピリカ富良野川) got its name, "good Furano River," because its water is clean. The main river runs over a red bed and its water is poor.³¹
• "Kami" (上, upper): the original Furano Village office stood here from 1899. When the southern part split off as Shimo-Furano ("lower Furano") in 1903, this part became Kami-Furano ("upper Furano").¹²
• Other Ainu names: Beberui River (ベベルイ川), from pe-pet-ruy ("water–river–rough") or pe-pi-ruy ("water–stones–rough"). Nukkakushi-Furano River (ヌッカクシ富良野川), from nup-ka-kus ("passing over the peat plain"); its old name was Iwaopet, "sulfur river." Ehorokanbetsu (江幌完別), from e-horka-an-pet ("river whose head turns back").³¹

• Prehistory: the town's 1998 centennial history lists 37 registered archaeological sites. Most sit on hill edges near springs. Finds include Jōmon pottery (Middle to Final Jōmon), obsidian flakes, possible Final Jōmon graves and one stone core that may be pre-ceramic.³³
• Ainu era: Matsuura's journals do not mention any Ainu living in the Furano Basin. The centennial history concludes that the basin had no permanent Ainu village. Ainu from Kamikawa and Tokachi came through it to hunt and to travel. Salmon could hardly get past the Sorachi River falls, and the basin floor was wetland and peat.³²
• 1858–1871, surveys and rule: in 1858 Matsuura crossed the basin to Tokachi with Kamikawa Ainu guides.³²³⁰ A monument to him stands at Miyama Pass (深山峠).³ In 1869 the area went to Sorachi District. It was split among three lords, Date Kunnao (伊達邦直), Date Katsusaburō (伊達勝三郎) and Watari Mototarō (亘理元太郎), until direct Kaitakushi rule began in August 1871.⁵
• 1897, the Mie group: settlers from Mie Prefecture sailed from Yokkaichi on 28 March 1897. The largest share came from Anō District (安濃郡). On 12 April a scouting party of the group's leaders reached an elm tree at West 3-sen North 29-gō, and that date is kept as the settlement anniversary. The first 18 households arrived in early May.³⁴ The group's leader was Tanaka Tsunejirō (田中常次郎).¹¹ Fukiage Onsen was found the same year.³
• 1899–1917, farms and villages: the railway from Biei reached Kamifurano Station on 15 November 1899.³⁵ The Shimazu family, former lords of Satsuma, acquired land for a large tenant farm (島津農場) in 1899.³⁶ Most settlers came from Toyama and Tokushima. Others came from Mie, Fukui, Aomori, Miyagi, Fukushima, Niigata, Ishikawa, Gifu and Kagawa, including organized groups from Yamagata, Miyagi, Iwate, Gifu, Shiga and Okayama.³⁷ Kami-Furano Village was created in 1903, and Nakafurano split off in 1917.¹²³
• 1917–1926, sulfur and hops: the Hirayama sulfur mine began digging at Tokachidake's crater in 1917.²⁰ Trial plots in 1923 showed Kamifurano to be the best hop land in Hokkaido. Dai Nippon Beer (now Sapporo Breweries) opened its Kamifurano hop farm in October 1926.²⁴
• 24 May 1926, the Taishō eruption: a second blast that afternoon melted the snow and set off a mudflow. It traveled about 25 km to the village in 25–27 minutes and buried the Mie group's fields and the Arai Ranch (新井牧場).³⁸ Of 144 dead and missing, 137 were in Kamifurano, including 25 people at the Hirayama mine.²⁰³⁸ Village head Yoshida Sadajirō (吉田貞次郎) led the rebuilding. His house survived the mudflow and is now the Pioneer Memorial Hall.⁴
• 1948–1958, lavender and the army: lavender farming began in 1948, and Kamifurano became a town in 1951.¹⁷³ Camp Kamifurano opened in September 1955, with about 2,500 soldiers from the 2nd Artillery Regiment and the 2nd Tank Battalion (特車大隊).²⁹ The population passed 19,000 by 1958.⁴
• 1962–1989, eruptions: Tokachidake erupted in 1962, killing 4 people according to the tourism association (Japanese Wikipedia says 5). It erupted again 21 times between December 1988 and March 1989.²⁰³
• 1977–1981, from oil to tourism: the fragrance company stopped buying lavender oil in 1977. The town planted 1.5 ha of lavender in Hinode Park in 1980 and named lavender its flower in 1981.¹⁷
• 2001–2022, new projects: JA Furano formed in 2001. The Tsuchi no Yakata soil museum became Hokkaido Heritage in 2004, and the town received a special zone for home-brewed doburoku in 2015.³ The lavender light-up began in 2021. In January 2022 Tokachidake Geopark, shared with Biei, was certified.⁴
• 2025–2026, recent events: the friendship with Camrose, Canada, ended in 2025.³⁹ 2026 marks 100 years since the Taishō eruption.²⁸ The tourism association reported a small eruption on 22 July 2026.⁴⁰ On 12 September the alert level went up to 3.²¹ On 23 September the Furano–Biei Norokko sightseeing train made its last run.⁴¹

• Setting: Kamifurano covers the north of the Furano Basin, with mountains on three sides. The Tokachidake range, in Daisetsuzan National Park (大雪山国立公園), rises to the east. The Ashibetsu block of the Yubari Mountains lies to the west, and to the north is the divide between Kamikawa and Sorachi. The town center and flat farmland lie to the south.⁴²⁴
• Mountains: Tokachidake (2,077 m), Kami-Horokamettoku (上ホロカメットク山, 1,920 m), Furanodake (富良野岳, 1,912 m), Sandanyama (三段山, 1,748 m) and Mae-Furanodake (前富良野岳, 1,625 m).³
• Water: the Furano, Nukkakushi-Furano and Beberui rivers run down from the Tokachidake range. Nisshin Dam (日新ダム), Hinode Dam (日の出ダム) and Ehoro Reservoir (江幌貯水池) lie in the north.⁴²
• Land use: 48.63 km² of fields, 21.41 km² of rice paddies and 94.26 km² of forest.⁴
• Geology: the rolling hills formed from pyroclastic-flow deposits laid down 2 to 1 million years ago. The Tokachidake range formed on top of them. Tokachidake Geopark (十勝岳ジオパーク) covers Kamifurano and Biei and includes sites such as the wave-like hills and Bakemono-iwa (化け物岩).⁴
• Climate: the JMA weather station in Ōmachi (220 m)³ averages −8.1 °C in January and 20.9 °C in August. The annual mean is 6.7 °C, with 993.7 mm of precipitation (1991–2020).⁴³ The record high is 37.5 °C (7 August 2021) and the record low −31.7 °C (17 February 1978).⁴⁴ Snow reaches about 1 m on the plain and 2–3 m in the mountains.⁴² The town is a designated heavy-snow area.³

• Crops: farming is the town's main industry. In FY2025 JA Furano recorded 1,863 ha of wheat, 787.5 ha of rice, 779.2 ha of soybeans, 357.5 ha of potatoes and 263.9 ha of sugar beet. It also recorded small plots that set the town apart: 8.2 ha of green shiso, 7.2 ha of haskap and 3.4 ha of hops.⁴ Farm households fell from 494 in 2000 to 225 in 2023.⁴
• Livestock: in FY2025 the town had 29,811 pigs, about 13,000 beef cattle and 1,137 dairy cattle. It ships more pigs than any other town in Kamikawa, and it has its own slaughterhouse. Two large beef farms sell "Furano Wagyu" and "Kamifurano Wagyu."⁴ Four pig farmers keep about 3,500 sows and ship about 70,000 pigs a year under the Kamifurano Pork brand. They work with a meat plant in town and with Prima Ham.²⁷
• Forestry: national and private forests are about equal in area. 69.3% of the private forest is planted, mostly larch.⁴
• Other employers: Camp Kamifurano makes public-sector jobs unusually important.³ Businesses in town include the farm-machinery maker Sugano (スガノ農機), Calbee Potato and a Sapporo Breweries hop research center.³²⁴ The 2021 Economic Census counted 454 business establishments with 3,088 workers.⁴
• Tourism: 489,386 visitors came in 2025, down from a peak of 611,395 in 2024. The town counted 6,191 foreign overnight guests in 2025.⁴ The town credits the lavender light-up (since 2021), the geopark and film-location tourism for the recovery after the pandemic.⁴
• Furusato nozei: in FY2024 the town received ¥445.2 million from 19,206 donations.⁴⁵
• Population: numbers rose sharply when the camp opened in 1955 and peaked above 19,000 in 1958.⁴ The preliminary 2025 Census showed an 11.6% fall in five years.⁷ The town still aims to hold about 9,745 people in 2027.⁴

• Shrines and temples: Kamifurano Shrine (上富良野神社, Miyamachi 1-4-26) offers beer brewed with local hops to the gods in place of sake.⁵⁷ After the 1926 mudflow, survivors sheltered at Meikenji temple (明憲寺).³⁸
• Museums: the Local History Museum (郷土館) opened in 1978. Its building copies the 1919 village office, and it shows stone tools and pioneer-era tools.⁵⁸ The Pioneer Memorial Hall (開拓記念館, 1997) is Yoshida Sadajirō's house, which survived the mudflow, taken down and rebuilt.⁴⁵⁷
• Literature: Miura Ayako's "Deiryū Chitai" ran in the Hokkaido Shimbun in 1976, and its sequel in 1978. The town backs a film version⁴ and a national high-school reading contest based on the novel.⁵⁹ In 2025 director Shibayama Kenji started work on the film, with Takita Yōjirō as supervisor.⁴
• TV and film: Fukiage Onsen's open-air bath appeared in "Kita no Kuni kara '95 Himitsu" (北の国から'95秘密).²²³ "Yasashii Jikan" (優しい時間) and the film "Ito" (糸) were also filmed here.³

Kamifurano has little documented Ainu history. The town's centennial history found no record of Ainu living permanently in the Furano Basin. It was hunting ground and a travel route for Ainu from Kamikawa (the upper Ishikari River) and from Tokachi. In 1858 Matsuura's Kamikawa Ainu guides even recognized snowshoe tracks near the Beberui River as those of Tokachi Ainu.³² The Ainu heritage that remains is mostly in place names: Furano, Beberui, Nukkakushi, Ehorokanbetsu and others (see Name origin).³¹ The nearest place to learn about Ainu culture is the Kawamura Kaneto Ainu Memorial Hall (川村カ子トアイヌ記念館) in Asahikawa. It opened in 1916 and is the oldest Ainu museum in Japan.⁶⁰

• Tsu, Mie Prefecture (三重県津市), Japan: friendship city since 30 July 1997. The link goes back to the Mie group that settled Kamifurano in 1897.³⁹³⁴ The two towns have agreed to post each other's disaster information online if either website goes down. In 2022 they started a shared social-media account, "Tsū-kamifu" (つぅかみふ), for the 25th anniversary.⁸¹
• Camrose, Alberta, Canada (former): friendship city from 5 September 1985.³ The citizens' groups behind the exchange had disbanded, so on 27 August 2025 the town decided to end it. The town profile gives 30 September 2025 as the end date.³⁹⁴

• Tanaka Tsunejirō (田中常次郎): leader of the Mie group of settlers who founded the town in 1897.¹¹³⁴
• Yoshida Sadajirō (吉田貞次郎): village head from 1919 to 1935, who led the rebuilding after the 1926 mudflow.³⁴
• Miura Ayako (三浦綾子): novelist who set "Deiryū Chitai" in Kamifurano.⁴
• Gotō Sumio (後藤純男): nihonga painter who built his own museum in the town.⁶²