Wassamu 和寒町

• The town's explanation: "Wassamu" comes from the Ainu wattosamu (ワットサム), "beside the elm tree", because elms once grew thickly here. The name was once also written 輪寒 or 和参³. Fittingly, the elm is the town tree.
• Hokkaido's Ainu place-name list: gives wat-sam (ワッサム), also written at-sam, meaning "elm tree – beside" (ニレ樹・の傍). The list cites Nagata Hōsei (永田方正). Place-name scholar Yamada Hidezō adds that it was read as "beside the at-ni", the ohyō elm (オヒョウニレ). Old maps mark "Wassamu" on the eastern tributary of the Kenbuchi River now called the Rokusen River (六線川). Yamada thought this was probably where the name began²⁴. No competing etymology appears in the sources consulted.
• Shiokari (塩狩): the name looks Ainu but is Japanese. Yamada explains that it takes one character each from Teshio (天塩) and Ishikari (石狩), the two old provinces the pass divides²⁵¹⁴.
• Other old names: the Fukuhara district was called Peoppe (ペオツペ) until the 1934 renaming of districts, and part of Minamioka was Onnebetsu (オン子ベツ)⁶. The Penke-Peoppe River still forms part of the Kenbuchi boundary², and the Peoppe post-station ruins keep the old name²⁶. The sources consulted give no Ainu meanings for these names.

• Ainu era: the Ainu name wat-sam was on old maps before settlement²⁴. The sources consulted document no archaeological sites in the town.
• 1807, Kondō Jūzō: in Bunka 4, the explorer Kondō Jūzō (近藤重蔵) left Hakodate in the 8th month, surveyed Bakkai and Sōya, and then travelled up the Teshio River. He camped at Shiokari, buried a retainer who had died, and crossed into Kamikawa. A sword dug up here in 1928 led to a memorial stone marking "a place linked to Kondō Jūzō"²⁷.
• 1897–1899, first settlers and the railway: A settler from Akita Prefecture, 菊池伊七, became the first Japanese resident in 1897. On 15 November 1899 the government Teshio Line (now the Sōya Main Line) reached Wassamu, which became its terminus¹¹²⁸.
• 1900–1911, group settlement: colonial land lots were surveyed in 1900. Organized groups settled in Chūwa (中和) and other districts from 1902. Households grew from 15 in 1900 to 880 in 1909, about half the population of Kenbuchi Village¹¹². A group from Hiroshima Prefecture arrived in 1905 and brought its kagura dances²⁶. Rice was first tried in 1907, and placer-gold digging began at about the same time¹¹.
• 1909: the Nagano Masao accident at Shiokari Pass (28 February)¹⁴. A government post station (駅逓所) opened at Peoppe on the wagon road to Horokanai and served until 1928²⁶.
• Pyrethrum boom: in 1911, three farmers brought pyrethrum (除虫菊) seed from Hiroshima Prefecture¹¹. The white-flowered insecticide crop was said to look like "snow falling in the July dog days". According to the town, production peaked in 1935 as the largest in Japan².
• 1915–1924: Wassamu Village split from Kenbuchi on 1 April 1915. The first national census in 1920 counted 9,370 people in 1,758 households². Shiokari Onsen opened in 1923¹¹, and Shiokari Station opened on 25 November 1924²⁰.
• 1946–1956: after land reform, 173 households settled 1,374 chō of undeveloped land¹¹. Wassamu became a town on 1 January 1952². A great flood struck in 1955, and in 1956 heavy rain wiped out the rice crop¹¹. The registered population peaked at 11,736 in 1956².
• 1964–1972: Wassamu-born Watanabe Osamu won Olympic wrestling gold in Tokyo in 1964¹¹. The Higashiyama ski area opened on 18 December 1969²¹, and the Nagano Masao monument was raised at Shiokari Station the same year¹¹. Over the winter of 1968–69, farmers who had abandoned unsold cabbages in their fields found them sweet in spring, and in 1972 the town was designated a national winter-cabbage production area¹²³.
• 1978–1999: −41.2 °C was recorded at Fukuhara in 1978, the town's lowest temperature, and planting of the Shiokari cherry trees began the same year. The Gokkan (extreme cold) Festival started in 1989⁶, friendship exchange with Teshio in 1991, and the All-Japan Tamaire Championship in 1996¹¹. In 1998 Wassamu became Japan's No. 1 pumpkin town by acreage and held its first Pumpkin Festival¹¹. The Shiokari Pass Memorial Hall opened for the town's centenary in 1999¹¹¹⁵.
• 2000–2010: the Dō-Ō Expressway reached Wassamu IC from Asahikawa-Takasu IC in 2000 and was extended to Shibetsu-Kenbuchi IC in 2003. Merger talks with Kenbuchi (and at first with Shibetsu and Asahi) began in 2003 and ended in 2005. Shiokari Onsen closed in 2005, and Wassamu High School closed in 2010¹¹².
• 2013–2019: a wood-chip fuel plant and heat-supply system opened in 2013, heating the town hall and other buildings with local thinnings¹¹². Pepo Nuts went on sale in 2014, and the village centenary was celebrated in 2015. Heavy rain and two typhoons between 31 July and 22 August 2016 caused flooding, and an evacuation advisory was issued on 20 August. The Food and Tourist Information Center opened in 2018¹¹.
• 2021–present: Shiokari Station passed to town management in April 2021²⁰. The town recorded its highest temperature, 36.8 °C, on 7 August 2021²⁹. Wassamu Shiokari Pass Park opened on 28 April 2023 on the old onsen site³⁰. Shiokari Station marked its centenary with a ceremony on 6 October 2024²⁰. In December 2025 the Pumpkin and Gokkan festivals were combined into a new Winter Harvest Festival³¹.

• Setting: Wassamu lies a little north of central Hokkaido, 36 km north of Asahikawa, near latitude 44° N³. It occupies the southern tip of the Nayoro Basin (名寄盆地) and has many low hills⁶. The town grew up along the headwaters of the Mataru-kushu-Kenebuchi River, a tributary of the Teshio River².
• Landforms: fairly low mountains close the town in on the east, south and west. The north opens out where the Kenbuchi River (剣淵川) flows on towards the Teshio². The highest peak is Mt. Wassamu (和寒山, 740 m). Mt. Mikasa (三笠山, 223 m) gives its name to Mikasayama Nature Park⁶. Route 40 and the Sōya Main Line run north–south through the middle of the town².
• Shiokari Pass: at 263 m, the pass on the Pippu border divides the Teshio and Ishikari river systems. It links the Nayoro and Kamikawa basins, and Route 40, the railway and the Dō-Ō Expressway all cross it¹⁴.
• Water and rocks: Minamioka Forest Park surrounds a reservoir lake in the hills about 10 minutes' drive from town³². Meotoiwa (夫婦岩), three layered rocks on a 333 m summit, are hornblende andesite erupted about 13 million years ago³³.
• Forest: 14,419 ha in all. National forest makes up 7,882 ha and town and private forest 6,537 ha¹⁰. No national, quasi-national or prefectural natural park was found in the town.
• Climate: Wassamu has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) and is designated a special heavy-snowfall area (特別豪雪地帯)⁶. The town notes that summer and winter temperatures can differ by more than 60 °C³. Normals (1991–2020) at the JMA station in Hinode, 150 m above sea level⁶:
  • annual mean temperature 6.4 °C, with January at −8.3 °C and August at 20.5 °C
  • annual precipitation 1,115.0 mm
  • annual snowfall 745 cm and mean deepest snow cover 105 cm³⁴
• Records: the station's records are 36.8 °C (7 August 2021), −36.8 °C (25 January 1985) and snow 161 cm deep (18 March 1994)²⁹. The town's own lowest reading is −41.2 °C at Fukuhara in 1978¹¹. The prose of English Wikipedia gives different figures (5.3 °C, 1,336 mm), although its own JMA climate table matches the values above³⁵; this entry follows JMA.

• Farming: rice is the core crop, grown as Kirara 397, Nanatsuboshi, Yumepirka and Hoshinoyume. About 90% of the wheat is autumn-sown Kitahonami. Farmers also grow soybeans and other beans, Kitawase buckwheat (a growing crop), potatoes, and vegetables from asparagus and onions to tomatoes, melons and broccoli¹².
• Farm structure: the 2020 Census of Agriculture counted 222 farm households. Of the farm businesses, 43 work 30 ha or more and 42 work 20–30 ha¹².
• Pumpkins and cabbage: in 2013 Wassamu grew 858 ha of pumpkins and 86 ha of overwintered cabbage³⁶. The pumpkin varieties are Miyako, Kuriaji, Kofuki, Ebisu, Meruhen, Kuri-yutaka and Yuki-geshō¹². Pumpkins are cured (キュアリング) in storage before sale, which turns their starch to sugar. They ship from late September until the winter solstice, when Japanese traditionally eat pumpkin³⁷¹².
• Pepo project: almost all pumpkin seed eaten in Japan is imported from China. The Striped Pepo (ストライプペポ), a hull-less seed pumpkin, was bred in 2012 by NARO's Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center, and Wassamu set out to become the first place in Japan to grow it as a crop³⁶¹². The roasted seeds went on sale as Wassamu Pepo Nuts in 2014¹¹.
• Livestock: in February 2022 there were 496 dairy cattle on 8 farms and 362 beef cattle on 3 farms³⁸.
• Forestry and energy: since 2013, chips from local thinnings have heated the town hall, library and health center¹¹²³. Japanese Wikipedia also names Wassamu, with Aibetsu, as a mushroom-growing center in Kamikawa⁶.
• Business: 177 establishments employ 1,092 people. Annual retail and wholesale sales are ¥3.087 billion, and manufacturing shipments ¥1.146 billion (Economic Census figures in the town profile)¹³.
• Tourism: 57,500 visitors came in FY2025, 96.6% of the year before. Of these, 2,700 came from outside Hokkaido and 52,000 were day-trippers, while 5,500 stayed overnight. July, the month of the summer festival, was the busiest (14,900), followed by May's cherry season (11,800). Only 30 foreign guests stayed the night³⁹.
• Population and aging: the population has fallen from a registered peak of 11,736 (1956)². People aged 65 and over made up 44.7% of residents at the end of FY2019, up from 31.5% in FY2001². The 2020–2025 Census fall of 16.4% was among the steepest in Hokkaido⁸.
• Revitalization: the town offers ¥50,000 on marriage and ¥100,000 for each birth. Nursery care is free, and medical care is free up to high-school age. New farmers and new businesses can receive ¥1 million¹³. Hometown-tax donations also pay for Shiokari Station, whose snow clearing and upkeep cost about ¥5 million a year²⁰.

• Wassamu Shrine (和寒神社) and chigo-mai: the shrine moved to its present site in 1938¹¹. Children dance the chigo-mai (稚児舞) there. It began in 1939, lapsed during the war, and was revived in August 1953. The seven-part program, six of whose dances come from the Sanjō kagura tradition, runs from the "Sakaki no Mai" to the "Urayasu no Mai". The same group of four children dances every year from first grade to ninth grade. The town says no other shrine in Hokkaido has this dance, which is a designated town cultural property²⁶.
• Other designated properties: papier-mâché kagura masks brought by the 1905 Hiroshima settlers. The dances were performed in Chūwa until the early Shōwa era, and the masks were offered to the shrine in 1944. There is also a "blue-eyed doll" from the 1927 US–Japan friendship-doll exchange, and the Peoppe post-station ruins²⁶.
• Temples, songs and the arts: Myōkō-ji (明光寺), of the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji branch, was founded in 1909. The "Wassamu Ondo" folk song dates from 1965¹¹. The Kitahara Exchange Exhibition Hall shows local art, including work by the calligrapher 石田天洲 (1929–2007), who lived in Wassamu⁵⁰.
• Sports town: Wassamu declared itself a "Sports Town" in 1983³. The town's high-school skiers won the national boys' relay title in 1987 and 1988¹¹.

The town's name is Ainu, meaning "beside the elm tree", and older Ainu names survive in Peoppe and Onnebetsu²⁴⁶. Beyond these place names, the sources consulted document little Ainu history in Wassamu. They record no Ainu sites or cultural facilities in the town and no local Ainu community. For the Ainu history of the wider Kamikawa region, see the Asahikawa entry.

• Teshio (天塩町), Rumoi Subprefecture: friendship exchange since 1991¹¹². Teshio has run a specialties stall at Wassamu's summer festival⁶.
• International: none found.

• Watanabe Osamu (渡辺長武, b. 1940): freestyle featherweight wrestler, gold medalist at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, unbeaten over a 189-match winning streak⁷¹²².
• Kato Taihei (加藤大平, b. 1984): Nordic combined skier and 2009 world team champion. He competed at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics and was the first winner of the town's Honor Award⁷². He became a hometown ambassador in 2026⁷³.
• Kikuchi Tsuguhisa (菊地二久, b. 1948): biathlete and Olympian²², who competed at the 1980 Lake Placid Games¹³.
• Matsumoto Rokutarō (松本六太郎): farm-cooperative leader, elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. He was given a town funeral in 1952¹¹.
• Atom (あとむ): Yoshimoto comedian from Wassamu, popular for short videos of a Hokkaido-dialect uncle. He was the town's first hometown ambassador, appointed in October 2025⁷³⁴⁵.
• Yamanaka Toshiyuki (山中俊幸): Wassamu-born head chef of Sky Restaurant Tancho at JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo, and a hometown ambassador since December 2025⁷³.