Nanae 七飯町

• A merged name. "Nanae" (七飯) joins the first characters of two villages, Nanae (七重) and Iida (飯田), which merged in 1879³. English Wikipedia dates the merger to 1897¹⁹. The town's own chronology says Meiji 12 (1879), and that date is used here.
• Nanae (七重) from Ainu. There are several theories:
  • nam-nay (ナムナイ), "cold river" (Britannica, via Kotobank)⁵
  • na-a-nay (ナア・ナイ), "many rivers" (town Ainu-policy plan)²⁰
  • nu-an-nay (ヌ・アン・ナイ), "river with abundant fish" (same plan)²⁰
• Iida (飯田). Nakajima, Iida and Tsuruno were adopted as district names in 1856. That same year, Iida Jinbei (飯田甚兵衛) arrived as leader of a group of Hachiōji Sennin Dōshin (八王子千人同心) settlers²¹. The sources consulted do not say whether the name comes from him.
• Other local Ainu place names:
  • Onuma: poro-to, "big lake"
  • Konuma: pon-to, "small lake"¹⁰
  • Yokotsu (横津): yuk-ot, "many deer"
  • Tōgeshita (峠下): ran-pok, "below the pass"
  • Ikusagawa (軍川): said to be named after an Ainu chief called Ikusanda²⁰

• Ainu era and the medieval frontier. The town's Ainu-policy plan says Japanese (Wajin) began moving into southern Hokkaido in the 12th–13th centuries. In the 15th century, Koshamain's War (コシャマインの戦い) broke out. Koshamain was killed near present-day Nanaehama in Hokuto. Aihara Masatane (相原政胤) fought him from a fort at Shirodate (城岱) in today's Nanae²⁰. Few records survive of Ainu life in the town²⁰.
• 1532. Mishima Shrine (三嶋神社) was founded, the earliest entry in the town chronology²¹.
• 1640. A huge eruption of Komagatake sent debris into Uchiura Bay. The tsunami that followed killed more than 700 people²¹²².
• 1786. Nanae and its surroundings had about 50 households and 260 people²¹.
• 1794. Settlers from Date in Mutsu Province arrived at Fujiyama (藤山)²¹.
• Early 1800s. Ginseng was grown at Nanae by order of the magistrate and sent to Edo²¹.
• 1849. Settlers from Shimōsa began clearing land at Ikusagawa²¹.
• 1856. Komagatake erupted again and killed more than 30 bathers at the Tomenoyu (留の湯) hot spring. The same year, about 15 Hachiōji Sennin Dōshin settlers came to farm and raise silkworms²¹.
• 1868. The Hakodate War (箱館戦争) opened with the Battle of Tōgeshita (峠下の戦い). There was also heavy fighting at Fujishiro, Nanae and Ōkawa³²³.
• 1869–1870: the Gaertner affair. The Prussian R. Gaertner (R・ガルトネル) leased 3 million tsubo of farmland for 99 years. The new government cancelled the lease in 1870 and paid US$62,500 in compensation³. The Gaertner Beech Forest (ガルトネルブナ林), said to have been planted by him near his house, still stands. It is a rare example of a planted old-growth beech forest²⁴.
• 1871. The Kaitakushi (開拓使, the colonization office) settled 20 farming households at the Nanae government farm. The farm introduced cabbage, American horses and pasture seed, and carp were stocked in Onuma³.
• 1872. The Hakodate–Sapporo road (today's Route 5) was cut through Tōgeshita³.
• 1874. Apple trees from Massachusetts were introduced²⁵.
• 1875. The American adviser Edwin Dun taught at the farm, which by then was the Nanae Agricultural Experiment Station³.
• 1876. Emperor Meiji visited the station. A decree that year ordered the station's cedar, cypress and red-pine seedlings planted out. The town links this decree and the imperial visit to the start of the Akamatsu Kaidō³¹⁴.
• 1877. Dr. William S. Clark visited³.
• 1879. Two village mergers took place: Nanae + Iida became Nanae Village, and Ōkawa + Nakajima became Ōnakayama Village. The station made grape wine and brandy that year³.
• 1902. The railway opened between Hakodate and Hongō, and Nanae Station opened⁴.
• 1903–1905. Onuma became a Hokkaido prefectural park. The town's park page gives 1903¹⁰, but its chronology gives 1905⁴.
• 1927. The Onuma Electric Railway (大沼電鉄) began running²⁶.
• 1929. Komagatake erupted violently²⁶.
• 1934. The population passed 10,000²⁶.
• 1945. The Sawara Line (砂原線) opened around the lake²⁶.
• 1947. A monument to the birthplace of the Danshaku potato (男爵薯発祥の記念碑) was erected²⁷.
• 1958. Onuma became Japan's 13th quasi-national park (July)¹⁰.
• 1959. The Shōjingawa Mine (精進川鉱山) closed, and the population dipped at the 1960 census¹.
• 1971. TOA Domestic Airlines flight "Bandai" (ばんだい号) crashed on Mt Yokotsu. 68 people died²⁷.
• 1970s–1995. Housing development after 1975 turned Nanae into a bedroom town for Hakodate. The population passed 20,000 in the 1980 census. In 1995 Nanae was the fifth-largest town in Hokkaido¹.
• 2004. Merger talks with Shikabe were abandoned and the statutory merger council was dissolved⁷.
• 2012. Onuma was registered under the Ramsar Convention on 3 July¹¹.
• 2014–2016. JR Hokkaido's Shinkansen depot at Iida-machi, which straddles the border with Hokuto, was set up in October 2014 and took the name Hakodate Shinkansen General Rolling Stock Center (函館新幹線総合車両所) on 31 July 2015²⁸. The Hokkaido Shinkansen began service in 2016⁷.
• 2018. Michi-no-Eki Nanairo Nanae opened in March⁹.
• 2022. Ikedaen, Nagareyama-Onsen and Chōshiguchi stations on the Sawara branch closed on 12 March²⁹.
• 2026. Niyama Station (仁山) became a signal stop with no passenger service on 14 March³⁰.

• Location. Nanae lies in the southern Oshima Peninsula, about 16 km from central Hakodate. The town hall sits at 41°53′43″N, 140°41′39″E¹.
• Two halves. The Onuma Tunnel (大沼トンネル) on Route 5 splits the town¹.
  • North (Onuma district): Hokkaido Komagatake (1,131 m, an active volcano), the three lakes, and dairy and field farms on the lower slopes.
  • South: Route 5 runs through the middle. Rice paddies lie on the plain to the west and orchards on the hills to the east¹.
• Mountains. Mt Yokotsu (横津岳, 1,167 m) and Mt Nanae (七飯岳, 779 m) rise to the east⁷. Hikurashi-yama (日暮山, 303 m) gives a classic view over Onuma³¹.
• Rivers. The main rivers are the Ōkawa (大川), Narukawa (鳴川), Kunebetsu (久根別川) and Nakano (中野川)⁷.
• Lakes. Komagatake's eruptions formed a proto-Onuma about 30,000–50,000 years ago. Later eruptions shaped today's lakes: Onuma was dammed, while Konuma and Junsainuma formed by subsidence¹⁰.

Figures are from the town's park page¹⁰. The town's 2024 statistics sheet gives Onuma as 5.31 km² and Konuma as 3.81 km²³². Japanese Wikipedia counts about 120 islets in Onuma and a 24 km shoreline³³.

• Onuma Quasi-National Park. The park covers 90.83 km² around Komagatake and the lakes¹¹.
• Forest. Forest covers 12,762 ha of the town³².
• Climate overview. The town calls its climate the mildest in Hokkaido, with low precipitation and distinct seasons¹.
• Onuma weather station (大沼, 165 m). The station records precipitation and snow, but not temperature³⁴. Its 1991–2020 normals are 1,099 mm of precipitation and 489 cm of snowfall a year, with an average maximum snow depth of 69 cm³⁵. The record snow depth is 112 cm (17 February 2018) and the record daily rainfall is 189 mm (11 September 2001)³⁶.
• Hakodate as a lowland reference. For the lowland south of the town, neighbouring Hakodate averages 9.4 °C a year: −2.4 °C in January and 22.1 °C in August. It gets 306 cm of snowfall a year³⁷.

• Workforce. The 2020 Census counted 11,853 working residents³²:
  • Primary industry: 1,123 (1,076 of them in farming)
  • Secondary industry: 2,296
  • Tertiary industry: 8,266
• Agriculture: farms and land. The 2020 agricultural census counted 329 farm households, 289 of them selling produce. They worked 2,399 ha: 538 ha of paddy, 1,806 ha of upland fields and 54 ha of orchards³².
• Agriculture: livestock. The town had 2,000 dairy cattle and 14,298 beef cattle³².
• Agriculture: crops. The main products are rice, vegetables (daikon, carrots, long onions), dairy and beef, flowers (especially carnations) and fruit¹²³².
• Agriculture: output. Output in FY2005 was about ¥5.8 billion. Vegetables led with ¥2.37 billion, followed by livestock (¥1.46 billion), flowers (¥1.18 billion), rice (¥0.56 billion) and fruit (¥0.14 billion)¹².
• Agriculture: firsts. In 1978 Nanae was the first place in Hokkaido, and the second in Japan after Nagano, to install vacuum pre-cooling storage¹².
• Apple brand. Nanamitsuki (ななみつき) is a strictly graded brand of the Gunma Meigetsu (ぐんま名月) variety grown in Nanae. At the first auction of the 2025 crop, a wooden box of seven sold for ¥100,000 at Hakodate Central Wholesale Market³⁸.
• Lake fishery. Inland fishing on the lakes (wakasagi, freshwater shrimp, junsai) brought in ¥6.548 million in FY2024³².
• Manufacturing and commerce (2021 Economic Census).
  • All sectors: 818 establishments with 7,851 workers.
  • Manufacturing: 23 plants (4 or more workers) with 1,005 workers, shipping ¥19.66 billion.
  • Wholesale and retail: 139 shops with sales of ¥19.68 billion³².
• Local producers. Makers include:
  • Obara (小原), whose Hakodate factory makes Kohap Guarana (コアップガラナ)³⁹
  • Hakodate Wine (はこだてわいん)⁴⁰
  • Hakodate Jōzō (箱館醸蔵), southern Hokkaido's first new sake brewery in 35 years⁴¹
• Tourism. The town counted 2,147,125 visitors in FY2024 (1,185,041 from within Hokkaido, 962,084 from outside). Only 102,967 stayed overnight⁴²; the town's statistics sheet, citing the Hokkaido visitor survey, gives about 98,200 overnight visitors for the same year³². The peak was 2.69 million in FY2001. Visitors fell 47% to 1.20 million in FY2020 during the pandemic and have since recovered⁴².
• Population structure. On 1 January 2025, 9,625 of 27,139 residents (about 35%) were 65 or older³². In 2024 there were 127 births and 475 deaths, and 1,035 people moved out against 979 who moved in³².

Shrines and temples

• Mishima Shrine (三嶋神社) has origins in 1532²¹. The old Ōkawa Mishima Shrine became Ōnakayama Shrine (大中山神社)²¹.
• The Nanae Giant Ginkgo (ななえの大イチョウ) grows on the site of Mishima Shrine's old hall, which burned in 1898. It is about 400 years old, 6.3 m around the trunk, and said to be the thickest ginkgo in Hokkaido²⁴.
• Hōrinji temple (宝琳寺) holds graves of fighters from the Hakodate War³.

Museums and monuments

• Nanae Town History Museum (七飯町歴史館, Honchō 6-1-3). Admission is free⁵⁹. It runs themed exhibitions; "33 Things to Know about Onuma" (大沼を知るための33のこと) is on from 28 August to 1 November 2026⁶⁰.
• Hitomi Katsutarō monument. A monument to Hitomi Katsutarō (人見勝太郎), a veteran of the Battle of Tōgeshita, stands at the Michi-no-Eki. It is part of the "Last Samurai of Southern Hokkaido" monument trail²³.

Literature and music

• A monument to "Sen no Kaze ni Natte" stands on the lakeshore northeast of Nishi-Ōshima island¹⁸.
• Legends. Local legends explain Komagatake's name. In one, the samurai Aihara Suetane and his daughters threw themselves into Onuma, and his white horse vanished neighing toward the mountain⁶¹²⁰.

• Few records. The town's own Ainu-policy plan says that southern Hokkaido's image is shaped more by Matsumae rule and Meiji modernization, and that records of Ainu life in Nanae are scarce²⁰.
• Surviving traces. Ainu life survives in place names (七重, 大沼, 横津, 峠下, 軍川), in early-modern genre paintings, and in Meiji-era photographs of Junsainuma²⁰.
• Koshamain's War. The plan links the 15th-century war and the later rising against Aihara Suetane to local sites and legends: Shirodate, Onuma and Komagatake²⁰.
• Mountain name. One legend records the old name of Komagatake's eastern peak as Kayabe-nupuri (カヤベヌプリ)⁶¹.
• No local organization. The town has no Ainu association and no Ainu cultural facility²⁰.
• Current programmes. The town's plan under the national Ainu Policy Promotion Act runs to March 2028. It schedules:
  • performances of traditional instruments and dance at the Nanae Culture Center, with help from Ainu groups across Hokkaido
  • Ainu embroidery and cooking workshops for residents
  • an "Irankarapte Music Festival in Nanae" (イランカラプテ音楽祭 in ななえ) in FY2023, with a baseline of 1,000 visitors²⁰

For deeper Ainu culture, the nearest major centre is Upopoy in Shiraoi.

• Concord, Massachusetts, USA. Sister city since 15 November 1997³². The town traces the link to its farming history²⁵:
  • Apples and the Irish Cobbler potato (the original Danshaku) were imported from Massachusetts.
  • The farm's 1878 director, Yuchi Sadamoto (湯地定基), studied in Massachusetts.
  • William Wheeler, who designed early livestock barns here, came from Concord.
• Miki, Kagawa Prefecture (香川県三木町). Domestic sister town since 11 October 1999³².

• Kawada Ryōkichi (川田龍吉). Businessman who gave rise to the Danshaku potato on his Nanae farm¹²⁷.
• Tanaka Seigen (田中清玄). Businessman and political fixer, born in Nanae⁷.
• Kagiya Yōhei (鍵谷陽平). Professional baseball player from Nanae⁷.
• Arai Man (新井満, 1946–2021). Writer and composer of "Sen no Kaze ni Natte", which he said was born in Onuma, where he had a villa¹⁸.
• Tanimura Shiho (谷村志穂). Novelist and Nanae tourism ambassador⁷.
• Edwin Dun (エドウィン・ダン). American livestock adviser who taught at the Nanae experiment station in 1875³.