Yakumo 八雲町

Unlike most Hokkaido names, "Yakumo" is not Ainu. Tokugawa Yoshikatsu (徳川慶勝), the former lord of the Owari Domain who organized the settlement, named it after the poem in the Kojiki that Susanoo sings to celebrate the house he built for his bride: "Yakumo tatsu / Izumo yaegaki / tsumagomi ni / yaegaki tsukuru / sono yaegaki wo" (八雲立つ 出雲八重垣 妻籠みに 八重垣つくる その八重垣を, "Where eight clouds rise, in Izumo, an eightfold fence…"). The name expressed his hope for a prosperous and peaceful ideal land¹¹¹.

Many local names are Ainu, according to the town's Ainu place-name list²³:

• Yūrap (ユー・ラㇷ゚, 遊楽部), the Ainu name of the core Pacific-side area and its river, means "river down which hot-spring water flows".
• Otoshibe (落部) comes from O-tes-pet, "river with a fish weir at its mouth". Nodaoi (野田生) comes from Nup-tay, "field and woods". Yamakoshi (山越) comes from Yam-uk-us-nay, "stream where chestnuts are always gathered".
• Aimanai (相沼内), in Kumaishi, comes from Aynu-oma-nay, "where the Ainu live".
• Kumaishi (熊石) has two proposed origins. The usual one is Kuma-us-i, "place with fish-drying poles", referring to racks of drying herring. The other is Kuma-un, "place where a dark shadow appears", referring to the Unseki rock²⁴²³.

• Prehistory. Jōmon-period finds from the Kotan Onsen site (コタン温泉遺跡) are a national Important Cultural Property. A red-painted spouted vessel (赤彩注口土器) is a Hokkaido-designated cultural property. Both are held by the town museum⁷²⁵.
• Ainu era and the border. There were Ainu kotan at Yūrap, Otoshibe and Nodaoi⁷. In the Edo period the town sat on the line between the Ainu lands (Ainu Mosir, アイヌモシリ) and the Wajin area controlled by the Matsumae Domain²⁶. On the Sea of Japan side, the Matsumae Domain set up a guard post (番所) at Kumaishi that marked the northern limit of Wajin territory. The town profile dates it to 1691 and the town's Ainu history site to 1692¹²⁴. On the Pacific side, the shogunate moved the Wajin–Ainu boundary north to the Sakai River at Yui around 1800. It also moved the travel-inspection checkpoint to the Yamakoshinai trading post (山越内会所), said to be Japan's northernmost checkpoint. The Ainu site dates this to 1800 and the tourism page to 1801 (Kyōwa 1). The checkpoint lost its role in 1861²⁷¹⁶.
• Kumaishi's herring era. The monk Nichiji (日持), a disciple of Nichiren, is recorded as visiting Kumaishi in 1296. The 1741 (Kanpō 1) tsunami, set off by the eruption of Oshima-Ōshima island, devastated the village, which then grew into a herring "thousand-koku" fishing ground⁷. The traveler Sugae Masumi (菅江真澄) described its herring camps in 1789²⁴.
• Late Edo. In 1862 American engineers Blake and Pumpelly introduced gunpowder rock-blasting, reportedly its first use in Japan; the town museum's mining exhibits cover the episode²⁸. In 1865 British consular staff stole the remains of 13 Ainu from graves at Otoshibe (see Ainu heritage)²⁹.
• Owari Tokugawa settlement (1878). Tokugawa Yoshikatsu obtained state land at Yūrap to support former retainers left without income after the Meiji Restoration. In 1878, 15 families (72 people) and 10 single men, 82 people in all, arrived from the Owari (Aichi) area¹. Their Tokugawa farm (徳川農場) became the core of the town¹⁴, and the talismans from Atsuta Shrine they enshrined in 1879 became Yakumo Shrine¹⁶. More Aichi settlers followed, among them Umemura Tajūrō (梅村多十郎) in 1892³⁰.
• Village to town. Yakumo Village was formed in 1881 and merged with Yamakoshinai in 1902. The Hakodate Main Line arrived in 1903, and Yakumo became a town in 1919⁷.
• Tokugawa Yoshichika and the bears. From 1918 Tokugawa Yoshichika, 19th head of the Owari Tokugawa house, hunted bears with Ainu guides from Yūrap and Otoshibe, earning the nickname "the bear-hunting lord" (熊狩の殿様). The wooden-bear craft he launched in 1924 was branded "Kumabori" (熊彫) in 1928, and in 1932 Asahi Graph called Yakumo bears Hokkaido tourists' favorite souvenir¹³. The carvers' society faded away in 1943, during the war¹⁴.
• Shōwa. A road to Kumaishi opened in 1933 and an army airfield, now the JASDF Yakumo sub-base, in 1943. The Tokugawa farm closed in 1948. Otoshibe Village was merged in 1957, Kumaishi became a town in 1962, and the Yakumo lead–zinc mine closed in 1969⁷.
• Merger and new infrastructure. Yakumo and Kumaishi merged on 1 October 2005¹. Funkawan Panorama Park and the Dō-Ō Expressway's Yakumo IC opened in 2006, Otoshibe IC in 2009, and in 2014 the Unseki Road over the peninsula was completed and the Oka-no-Eki shop opened³¹⁷.
• Recent years. Kumaishi's farmed "Hokkaido Futami Salmon" reached the market in 2020¹¹. A Hokkaido Shinkansen station, Shin-Yakumo (新八雲, tentative name), is planned for the Kasuga district, but the Sapporo extension has been delayed and no opening date is set³². On 18 September 2026 the town and TOPPAN began a trial, running to 30 November, of AI camera detection of brown bears³³.

• Setting. Yakumo sits in the middle of the Oshima Peninsula and cuts right across it. It faces Uchiura Bay (内浦湾, also called Funka-wan, "Volcano Bay") to the east and the Sea of Japan to the west⁶¹¹. The Oshima Mountains (渡島山地) divide the town. The Yūrappu (遊楽部川), Otoshibe (落部川) and Nodaoi (野田追川) rivers drain to the Pacific, and the Aimanai (相沼内川) and Kenichi (見市川) rivers drain to the Sea of Japan¹.
• Land. Forest covers about 772 km², roughly 81% of the town, and about 61% of that forest is national forest. Farmland (fields, paddies and pasture) covers about 73 km²¹⁵⁶. The eastern (Yakumo) side has river plains and gentle hills. The western (Kumaishi) side is steep, with peaks over 1,000 m close to a mostly rocky coast⁷.
• Mountains and parks. Mt. Obokodake (雄鉾岳, 999.3 m per the town; Wikipedia gives 999.5 m) rises between the two sides; the Ainu called it Kamuy-e-roski, "where the gods stand"¹⁶²³⁷. Other peaks include Mt. Yūrappu (遊楽部岳, 1,277.0 m)⁷. The Kenichi River basin and part of the Kumaishi coast are in Hiyama Prefectural Natural Park (檜山道立自然公園)⁷.
• Wildlife. Salmon spawn naturally in the lower Yūrappu River. In winter white-tailed eagles and Steller's sea eagles, both national natural monuments, can be watched a few kilometers from the town center¹¹¹⁶.
• Climate, Pacific side (Yakumo AMeDAS, 8 m). The 1991–2020 normals are an annual mean of 8.1 °C, 1,294.1 mm of precipitation and 628 cm of total snowfall³⁴. The records are 34.1 °C (25 July 2025), −19.0 °C (17 February 1978) and a snow depth of 121 cm (27 February 2012)³⁵. Summers bring sea fog, and precipitation peaks in summer⁷¹¹.
• Climate, Sea of Japan side (Kumaishi AMeDAS). The warm Tsushima Current keeps Kumaishi milder⁷: an annual mean of 9.4 °C, 1,383.3 mm of precipitation and 442 cm of snowfall³⁶. The town describes the Sea of Japan side as wetter in winter than in summer¹¹, but the JMA normals for Kumaishi peak in July–August (177.5 mm and 179.6 mm), against 71–109 mm a month in December–February³⁶. The records are 33.5 °C (3 August 1978), −13.7 °C (3 February 2001) and 95 cm of snow (8 February 1984)³⁷. The town's own figures for single recent years (for example 9.0 °C and 10.0 °C in 2020) run warmer than these 30-year normals⁶.

• Farming (mostly livestock). Gross farm output was ¥9.165 billion in 2023, 90% of it from livestock: dairy ¥5.367 billion, pigs ¥1.761 billion and beef cattle ¥1.069 billion. Dairy farms fell from 93 to 72 between 2019 and 2023, while cows per farm rose from 111 to 153¹⁵. The town runs a dairy training farm and has brought in mega-farms to help newcomers start dairying¹¹.
• Crops. Rice yielded 1,720 t and soft-blanched green onions (軟白ねぎ) 480 t in 2023¹⁵. Yakumo is southern Hokkaido's only mochi-rice district, with the "Kaze no Ko Mochi" (風の子もち) brand¹¹.
• Wine grapes. Trial plantings began in fiscal 2018 and commercial planting in fiscal 2023. About 2,000 European-variety vines are to be added each year to fiscal 2030, with the aim of attracting a private winery³⁸. The first all-Yakumo wine went on offer in July 2026³⁹.
• Fisheries. Landings in 2024 totaled 25,395 t worth ¥6.19 billion including tax, down from ¥9.13 billion in 2023 mainly because scallop value fell from ¥7.60 billion to ¥4.68 billion. The salmon catch collapsed from 304 t in 2020 to 29 t in 2024¹⁵. The town names scallop-spat die-offs and falling catches as its main fisheries problems³⁸. The Sea of Japan side lands mainly pollock and squid and farms abalone¹². A Kumaishi hatchery is being expanded toward 500,000 trout-salmon seedlings a year to supply sea farms now starting across Hokkaido³⁸⁴⁰.
• Deep-sea water. Kumaishi draws deep-sea water from 343 m down, up to 3,500 t a day. The town promotes it for washing seafood and vegetables and for cooking, and sells it for business use by the cubic meter⁴¹.
• Manufacturing and services. In 2021 factories with four or more workers shipped about ¥26.0 billion of goods, some 97% of it processed food¹⁵. Yakumo is the service center of northern Oshima, with a general hospital and the JASDF Yakumo sub-base¹¹⁷.
• Tourism. 512,000 visits in fiscal 2023, close to the pre-COVID 534,000 of fiscal 2019, but only 25,000 (about 5%) were overnight stays¹⁵.
• Hometown tax (ふるさと納税). ¥3.45 billion from 197,366 donations in fiscal 2023 and ¥1.78 billion in fiscal 2024; the record was ¥3.68 billion in fiscal 2018⁴².
• Population. In 2020, 35% of residents (5,534) were 65 or older. In 2024 there were 62 births and 238 deaths, plus a net outflow of 94². The population fell from 18,896 (2010 Census) to 14,813 (2025 preliminary)²³.

• Folk arts. Aimanai Yakko (相沼奴), a yakko (footman) procession performance, is a town-designated intangible folk cultural property kept by a preservation society⁷.
• Shrines and temples. Yakumo Shrine (八雲神社, Miyazono-chō) got its main hall in 1884 and its branch spirit of Atsuta Jingū in 1887¹⁶. At Kumaishi, Monshōan (門昌庵) is the hermitage where Hakugan (柏厳), head priest of the Matsumae clan's family temple, was exiled after a domain feud about 300 years ago; its gate is said to have been Toyotomi Hideyoshi's gift to the Matsumae lord¹⁶. Hōzō-ji (法蔵寺) and Muryō-ji (無量寺) hold Hokkaido-designated properties, including the latter's Kanpō tsunami monument⁷.
• Museums. The Local History Museum (八雲町郷土資料館, 1978) holds 13,301 items on the Tokugawa settlement, Yakumo-yaki pottery (around 1907) and mining²⁸. The adjoining Wood-Carved Bear Museum traces the craft from its Swiss models to modern carvers¹⁴. The Kumaishi History Museum (熊石歴史記念館, 1987) shows old tools, dioramas and replicas¹⁶.
• Literature. Tsuruta Tomoya (鶴田知也) won the Akutagawa Prize for Koshamain-ki (コシャマイン記). His literary monument, put up in 1985 at Kasuga, stands where the novel's hero is imagined to have died¹⁶.

Yakumo has more documented Ainu history than most of southern Hokkaido²⁶, and the town publishes it in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean on the website "The Ainu Mosir and the Two Seas" (アイヌモシリとふたつのうみ), launched in 2024⁵⁰⁵¹.

• A border town. The Kumaishi guard post and the Yamakoshinai checkpoint marked the edges of Ainu Mosir on the two coasts. Sugae Masumi and Matsuura Takeshirō (松浦武四郎) both recorded Ainu life at Yūrap; a poem by Matsuura hangs at Yui Inari Shrine (由追稲荷神社), where he prayed for safe travel²⁶²⁷²⁴.
• Two rare collections. Ainu communities in southern Hokkaido declined early, so their material culture is scarce. Two major groups survive from Yakumo: the Shiiku collection (椎久資料) from the Yūrap Ainu, now at the Hakodate City Museum, and the Pirika-kai collection (ピリカ会資料) from the Otoshibe Ainu, held by the Matsumae town board of education²⁶.
• Community leaders. Shiiku Toshizō (椎久年蔵, Ainu name Toitarek), leader of the Yūrap Ainu, worked with researchers from the 1930s and was known as the best tradition-bearer on the Oshima Peninsula⁵². Benkai Takojirō (辨開凧次郎, Ikashipa), leader of the Otoshibe Ainu, joined the search for victims of the 1902 Mount Hakkōda disaster in Aomori and received a letter of thanks from the army⁵³. In 1900 he presented two bear cubs for the Crown Prince's wedding and received "Gosho no Matsu" (御所の松) pines in return. One of the pines and his stone monument, inscribed in Ainu, stand at Otoshibe Hachimangū and are a town natural monument⁵³.
• Tokugawa Yoshichika and the Ainu. Yoshichika hunted bears with the Yūrap and Otoshibe Ainu, took part in bear-sending (iomante) rites wearing an Ainu robe, and supported the publication of John Batchelor's Ainu dictionary¹³. Yakumo's Ainu entered carvings and embroidery in the early craft competitions, but there is no record of them carving bears; the town now calls the wooden bear a craft shared by Wajin and Ainu culture¹³.
• The 1865 grave robbery. After Ainu complaints, the Hakodate magistrate made the British return the 13 stolen remains, punish the culprits and apologize. The grave marker was later taken to Hokkaido Imperial University after a 1935 excavation. It came back to Yakumo in 1969 and since 1995 has stood beside the "Senkusha Utari Chinkon no Hi" (先駆者ウタリ鎮魂之碑) memorial in Yakumo Cemetery²⁹.
• Today. The town's Ainu Policy Promotion regional plan ran from fiscal 2020 to 2024. Its stated aim is a town where today's Ainu people can live with pride⁵⁴. Bird's-eye-view panels stand at Funkawan Panorama Park and at the Kumaishi Fureai Center (taken down in winter), and the Ainu site suggests self-guided tour routes⁵¹⁵⁰. In April 2026 the fisheries section contracted a project to develop an "Ainu brand" for Yakumo scallops⁴⁰.

• Komaki, Aichi Prefecture (愛知県小牧市), a friendship city since 24 October 1986. The tie grew out of the Owari Tokugawa connection: the 20th head of the house, Tokugawa Yoshitomo (徳川義知), proposed it. Children's exchanges began in 1983, and a citizens' exchange group was founded in 1989⁷. The town still funds a Komaki–Yakumo student exchange program⁴².
• No international sister city was found.

• Tokugawa Yoshichika (徳川義親, 1886–1976), 19th head of the Owari Tokugawa house and owner of the Tokugawa farm. He started the wooden-bear craft and is an honorary citizen of Yakumo⁷¹³²⁵.
• Shiiku Toshizō (椎久年蔵, Toitarek), leader of the Yūrap Ainu and a key source for Ainu language and ethnography⁵².
• Benkai Takojirō (辨開凧次郎, Ikashipa), leader of the Otoshibe Ainu, hunter and horse doctor⁵³.
• Gorō Ibuki (伊吹吾郎), actor, from the former Kumaishi town⁷⁸.
• Masahiro Kobayashi (小林正寛), actor and voice actor⁷⁸.
• Masayasu Hosaka (保阪正康), nonfiction writer and historian of the Shōwa era⁷.
• Yukari Konishi (小西ゆかり), sport shooter⁷⁸.