Kuromatsunai 黒松内町

The name comes from the Ainu kurmat-nay (クルマッナイ), "stream of the Japanese (Wajin) woman". The Hokkaido Government's Ainu place-name list gives this reading. Its commentary suggests that Wajin women rarely came into the area in the past, so one who did would have stood out and given the place its name¹⁷. The town tells a local story: wives who followed their migrant fisherman husbands north were caught in a storm and stayed here¹. Japanese Wikipedia, citing a 1973 Japanese National Railways book on station names, describes a similar story: a fisherman's wife was shipwrecked nearby and had to stay⁷. The name appears as "Kurumatsunai" on the 1815 coastal survey map by Inō Tadataka and Mamiya Rinzō⁶. The kanji 黒松内 ("black pine" + "inside") are used for their sound.

Other local names:

• Utasai (歌才): from otasei, "sandy place with shells"¹⁸
• Soubetsu (添別): from seibetsu, "river with many shells"¹⁸
• Neppu (熱郛): from kunne-net-pet, "river of the black marker tree", shortened. The name of JR Neppu Station comes from it¹⁹.
• Shiraigawa (白井川): not from Ainu. The town says it comes from a river called Shirakawa (白川)¹⁸.

• Before settlement: The sources consulted for this entry record almost no archaeology from the town. The 1815 survey map by Inō and Mamiya already names "Kurumatsunai" and the mountain "Kurumatsunai-yama". Ōtori Shrine (大鳥神社) dates to 1821. In 1833 Hanaoka Riemon (花岡利右衛門) from Matsumae settled near today's Midori Bridge and ran a river ferry and an inn.⁶
• The Kuromatsunai mountain road (1856): By order of the shogunate, a road was cut from Oshamambe on the Pacific side over the lowland to the herring grounds at Utasutsu on the Sea of Japan⁶²⁰. Travellers on it included Matsuura Takeshirō, Thomas Blakiston, and the Hokkaido Development Commission's foreign advisers Benjamin Lyman and Horace Capron. Enomoto Takeaki signed a votive tablet at Sakkai Kannon-ji (作開観音寺) on his way to join the commission²⁰. Sakkai Kannon-ji was founded in 1859⁶.
• Meiji settlement (1871–1890s): In 1871 the Development Commission set up a post station (駅逓) at Kuromatsunai⁶. Thirteen households of retainers of Date Kuninari moved here from Monbetsu in Usu District (in today's Date), among them Yokoyama Katsushirō²⁰⁶. At the same time, 24 households of former Tonami (ex-Aizu) samurai settled at Sakkai, and Yamamoto Tamakichi and a few others settled at Shirosumi. The town counts this year as its founding¹³. In 1889 a group of young settlers from Niigata, led by Takizawa Chiyokichi, cleared land at Nakanokawa. From 1891 Yokomura Gihei and 16 Utasutsu residents formed a farming cooperative, and in 1894 they received land at Neppu.⁶
• Railway town: The Hokkaido Railway reached Neppu in 1903, and Kuromatsunai and Neppu stations opened⁶. Kuromatsunai had an engine depot for the helper locomotives that pushed trains over the hills²¹. The private Suttsu Railway ran 16.5 km from Kuromatsunai to Suttsu from 1920²¹²²; the town timeline dates its opening to 1921⁶. Service stopped in 1968 and the line was formally abolished in 1972²¹²². When the Muroran Main Line opened in 1928, the rail hub moved to Oshamambe and many railway families left⁶.
• Dairy and gold: Dairy cattle were first kept here in 1907, and a dairy cooperative was formed in 1932. Gold was found at the Daikin mine (大金鉱山) in 1928 and the Daiei mine (大榮鉱山) in 1935. They employed more than 400 and more than 600 workers, and both closed in 1943 because of the war.⁶
• Saving the beech forest: In the early 1920s the forestry scientist Niijima Yoshinao (新島善直) visited Utasai and called its beeches "palm trees of the north". His report led to the natural-monument designation in 1928²³⁹. The town timeline dates his visit to 1923, while the Buna Center quotes his report as dated October 1922⁶²³. Around 1944 the forest was to be felled for wooden aircraft propellers. Hokkaido University professor Tatewaki Misao (館脇操) argued for its value and stopped the plan. In 1954 the village, short of money, asked for the designation to be lifted so the trees could be sold. Local residents petitioned the national authorities, and the designation stayed.²³
• Merger and the welfare town: The 1955 merger created Miwa Village with 7,438 people. It became Kuromatsunai Town in 1959. The Tsukushi-en children's home (1956) and the Shiribeshi Gakuen facility (1966) were the start of a cluster of welfare facilities, which earned Kuromatsunai a reputation as a "welfare town". Milk shipments passed 10,000 tonnes a year for the first time in 1984.⁶
• "Northern-limit beech village" (1986–2011): The beech became the town tree in 1986, the year a town planning committee proposed the beech-village plan⁶; the town's development plan dates the start of the programme to 1989¹³. The first Beef Tengoku was held in 1990. The Buna Center, the Utasai auto campground and the Toit Vert workshop opened in 1993, Kuromatsunai Onsen in 1998, and the Michi-no-Eki in 1999. Footpaths were laid out in 2004, the same year the beech forests became a Hokkaido Heritage. In 2009 the Kuromatsunai Shindō expressway link opened and the town was named one of the "100 Villages of Japan" (にほんの里100選).⁶
• Recent events: The population fell below 3,000 in April 2016. In September 2017 Typhoon No. 18 made landfall in the town, and an evacuation order was issued for the whole town. After the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake, the town was without power for about 44 hours. In 2019 Kuromatsunai formed the "Hashikko Alliance" (はしっこ同盟) with Oshamambe and Toyoura, and work began on the Hokkaido Shinkansen's Uchiura Tunnel under the town. In December 2020 it became a Tokyo 2020 host town for Suriname.⁶ The Utasai Shizen no Ie nature lodge closed on 31 March 2025²⁴.

Kuromatsunai lies in southwestern Hokkaido, about midway between Sapporo and Hakodate¹. It has no coastline. Suttsu separates it from the Sea of Japan and Oshamambe from the Pacific, but at both ends the town boundary is only about 200 m from the shore¹⁷. The two seas are about 28 km apart here¹³, and on a clear day you can see both from Mt. Kuromatsunai-dake¹.

• Landforms: Most of the town is low hills, with few high mountains or plains¹³. The Kuromatsunai Lowland (黒松内低地帯) runs from Suttsu to Oshamambe. It marks the northern limit of Japan's beech forests: north of it, Hokkaido's mixed conifer and broadleaf forest takes over¹⁰. Mt. Kuromatsunai-dake (黒松内岳, 740 m) is one of the "100 Famous Mountains of Hokkaido". Its trail from the Hokkaido Road 9 side has some steep, roped sections²⁵.
• Rivers: The Shubuto River (朱太川) is a second-class river, 43.5 km long, with a basin of 361.7 km². It rises on Mt. Kanayama on the Toyoura border, collects the Kuromatsunai and Neppu rivers, and flows into the Sea of Japan¹³. The tourism pamphlet describes it as a river with no embankments or other artificial structures, which it calls rare in Japan, and as home to wild ayu and yamame trout that move between river and sea²⁶. In 2016 the Shubuto river system was listed among the Ministry of the Environment's 500 Important Wetlands, and the whole town was named an important satoyama area for biodiversity⁶.
• Forests: Forest covers 27,280 ha, or 78.9% of the town (2015 census of agriculture and forestry)¹³. The Utasai forest reserve is 92.43 ha at 40–160 m above sea level, and beech makes up 58% of its trees. The Shiraigawa beech reserve covers 20 ha at 150–320 m²³.
• Climate: The town gets weather from both seas. From spring into summer, south-southeasterly winds bring dense fog off Uchiura Bay and keep temperatures low. In winter, north-northwesterly winds from the Sea of Japan bring heavy snow, and the town counts itself among the snowiest parts of southern Hokkaido¹. At the Kuromatsunai AMeDAS station (1991–2020 normals), the annual mean is 7.5 °C, annual precipitation 1,485 mm, total snowfall 838 cm, and the average deepest snow 135 cm²⁷. The records are 34.5 °C (18 Jul 2021) and −27.8 °C (25 Jan 1985). The deepest snow recorded is 214 cm (23 Feb 2022), and the wettest day brought 193.5 mm (18 Sep 2017)²⁸. The Köppen classification is Dfb, a humid continental climate²⁹.

• Farming: The core of local agriculture is dairy, beef cattle and seed potatoes. Beans and wheat are grown in rotation, and glutinous rice (もち米) is another main crop¹³. Dairy grew from the mid-1950s through mechanization and larger farms¹³, and yearly milk shipments passed 10,000 tonnes in 1984⁶. The town runs a public pasture and a compost center. It is now testing sheep grazing on abandoned farmland as a form of "regenerative agriculture" and a way to train new farmers¹³. The main farm co-op is JA Yōtei's Kuromatsunai branch⁷.
• Food processing and other companies: Toit Vert makes cheese, ham, bacon, sausage and ice cream³⁰. The tourism association names its operator as Fujita Corporation (フジタコーポレーション)³¹. Kuromatsunai Meisui (黒松内銘水) has bottled the mineral water "Suisai no Mori" (水彩の森) since 1997⁶. Niseko Foods (ニセコ食品) makes takuan pickles here⁷.
• Jobs: In the 2020 Census, 13.22% of workers were in primary industry, 16.11% in secondary and 70.67% in tertiary. The town calls this an "urban-type" pattern for a farm town and names services, including its ten social-welfare facilities, as a key industry¹³.
• Tourism: About 250,000 people visit each year. The FY2024 baseline was 260,000, and the target for FY2030 is 300,000¹³. The town expects fewer overnight stays after the Utasai Shizen no Ie closed and is planning other kinds of lodging¹³.
• Population: Kuromatsunai had 7,438 people at the 1955 merger, 4,532 in 1980, 3,082 in 2015 and 2,791 in 2020. In 2020, 39.5% of residents were 65 or older, against 28.7% nationally¹³. The 2025 Census preliminary count of 2,643 is 5.3% below 2020. Its male population rose 1.6% while its female population fell 11.8%, and households rose to 1,387⁴. The resident register gave 2,275 in August 2026³. Between FY2005 and FY2024, 66 families (140 people) moved to the town through its migration program¹³.
• Revitalization and projects: The town plans its tourism together with the third-sector Buna no Sato Promotion Corporation (ブナの里振興公社), the tourism association and outside partners, and works on regional tourism with Oshamambe and Toyoura through the "Hashikko Alliance"¹³. It also promotes itself through the Most Beautiful Villages union and collects furusato nozei donations, which it spends on nature conservation, landscape, children, welfare staff and migration³². The Hokkaido Shinkansen will run through the town in tunnels; the Sapporo extension is expected to open around the end of FY2038¹³. Spoil from the Uchiura Tunnel may contain natural heavy metals and is to be taken to the former Toyohoro town pasture¹³.

• Kuromatsunai Ondo (黒松内音頭): The town's dance song was introduced in 1989 for the 30th anniversary of town status. It was composed by Ichikawa Shōsuke and sung by folk singer Kishi Chieko⁶. It is danced in the Beef Tengoku parade³⁸.
• Snowshoe culture: Shibuya Yoshio (渋谷吉尾), a local master maker of traditional kanjiki snowshoes, inspired a kanjiki softball tournament from 1988 that grew into a national event, as well as a kanjiki festival⁶. The Buna Center lends Shibuya-style kanjiki for ¥200 a pair per day⁴³.
• Shrines and temples: Shrines include Ōtori Shrine, Nakanokawa Shrine and Neppu Shrine⁷. Ōtori Shrine was founded in 1821 and Sakkai Kannon-ji in 1859⁶. The inner temple (奥の院) of Bodai-in on Kannon-yama is stop No. 3 of the Hokkaido 33 Kannon pilgrimage⁷.
• The character 樻: Since the 1986 beech-village proposal, the town has written buna (beech) with the character 樻 in place of the usual 橅⁶. You will see it in names such as the restaurant Kumagera Kitchen Kirika (樻里花)¹¹.

Ainu-language place names are the clearest Ainu legacy in Kuromatsunai: the town's name (kurmat-nay), Utasai, Soubetsu and Neppu (see Name origin)¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹. One Ainu figure is remembered locally. Benkai Takojirō (辨開凧次郎, Ainu name Ekashiba) was a leader of the Otoshibe kotan in today's Yakumo. He worked as a livestock dealer and later as a licensed veterinarian. In 1902 he led an Ainu search party after the Hakkōda snow-march disaster. He died after falling from the Raiba Bridge (来馬橋), then a log bridge, in what was Tarukishi Village⁴⁴. Kuromatsunai remembers him for treating local farmers' horses and cattle and raised a memorial where he died, in the Taisei district, in 1988. The town's timeline dates his death to 1919, but Wikipedia gives 1924⁶⁴⁴. No Ainu cultural facility or active heritage group in the town was found in the sources consulted.

• Seiyo City (西予市), Ehime Prefecture: Sister-town ties began with the former Nomura Town, which also has the beech as its town tree and dairy as its main industry. They grew out of the 1988 "Buna Forum '88 in Utasai" and were signed on 25 March 1993¹. When Nomura merged into Seiyo on 1 April 2004, the tie passed to the city¹. At a 30th-anniversary ceremony on 21 November 2023, the two sides issued a joint declaration that includes handling each other's furusato nozei donations after a disaster⁵⁷.
• Hashikko Alliance (はしっこ同盟): A three-town cooperation agreement signed in April 2019 with Oshamambe and Toyoura⁶. It covers joint promotion and tourism¹³.
• Suriname: Kuromatsunai was a Tokyo 2020 Olympic host town for the Republic of Suriname (from December 2020)⁶.

• Takita Kazuki (滝田一希): A professional baseball player from Kuromatsunai, chosen by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the 3rd round of the 2023 draft. He was the first person from the town to be drafted.⁵⁸
• Miyashita Asahi (宮下朝陽): A Toyo University player chosen by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in the 3rd round of the 2025 draft. He is the second professional baseball player from the town.⁵⁹
• Nunotani Fumio (布谷文夫): A rock singer from Kuromatsunai who performed at Beef Tengoku 2000. He died on 15 January 2012.⁶