Feel the cool and clean climate.
Karuizawa Plateau is located at the southern foot of Mt. Asama, on a gentle slope at an elevation of 950 to 1,200 meters.
The plateau has a cool summer climate, high and arid land with good drainage, and rich forested areas, all of which are suitable for summer retreats.
Alexander Croft Shaw, the missionary who discovered and popularized Karuizawa as a summer resort, praised Karuizawa’s climate, calling it a “hospital without roof” – a natural sanatorium. He praised the climate of Karuizawa, calling it a “hospital without roof” and a natural sanatorium.
Of particular note is the high-cool climate, which is cool even in mid-summer.
In Tokyo, there are 106 “summer days” with daytime highs of 25°C or higher, but Karuizawa has a high-cool climate that is cool even in mid-summer.
The average temperature in Karuizawa in August is 20.5°C, 5.5°C lower than Tokyo. This is about the same temperature as Tokyo in late May or early June. In addition, dense fog occurs for 23 days in July and for 20 days in August. Because of this “foggy climate,” the temperature feels cooler to the touch.
These are the reasons why Karuizawa’s nature is suitable as a summer resort.
In addition, many trees such as fir, mizunara, konara, linden, and kobushi grow wild in Karuizawa as natural forests, making its cool climate feel even fresher.
Because Karuizawa has little snowfall, beech trees do not grow wild because the soil freezes over.
The most conspicuous tree in Karuizawa’s natural forests is the kobushi, designated as the town’s tree of the year. 20,000 kobushi trees bloom in late April with gorgeous blossoms. The blossoms are scattered among the other trees, heralding the arrival of spring to the Karuizawa highlands.
The streets are planted with larch, katsura, horse chestnut, fir, and other trees. Many of the villas in the old Karuizawa were built between the late Meiji and Taisho periods. These villa sites are surrounded by wide trees, and the buildings are hidden in the greenery.
The topography and stratigraphy of the Karuizawa Plateau is a gentle slope at the southern foot of Mount Asama, covered with erupted volcanic gravel and volcanic ash soil, and with a thick layer of pumice underground. Even if there is a considerable amount of precipitation, it percolates underground, and the air feels refreshing.
This is one of the advantages of this area. After a rainfall, sports facilities such as tennis courts and golf courses can be used immediately.
Karuizawa offers a magnificent view of Mt.
Asama, the symbol of Karuizawa, is a large active volcano with a volcanic base stretching 20 km from east to west and 33 km from north to south.
At its southern foot are the municipalities of Karuizawa Town, Miyota Town, Komoro City, and Saku City. At the northern base are the towns of Naganohara and Tsumagoi in Agatsuma-gun, Gunma Prefecture. Naganohara-cho is called Kita-Karuizawa. Miyota-machi is called Nishikaruizawa, but these areas are not included in the administrative district of Karuizawa. The Kutsumigake area where the Karuizawa Town Hall is located is called Nakakaruizawa, the area near Karuizawa Station is called Shin-Karuizawa, and the area around the Karuizawa 72 golf course is called Minamikaruizawa. The old Karuizawa Inn and the surrounding villa area have been called Kyu-Karuizawa or the old road since the Meiji era.
First “Plateau Region Name” in Japan
In fact, Karuizawa was the first “highland” in Japan.
The term “plateau” was first used in a sketch by Toson Shimazaki.
In April 1899, Shimazaki Toson was assigned to Komoro as a teacher at the Komoro Gijuku. The following year, 1900, he began writing “Sketches of Chikumagawa River. In the chapter “On the Plateau” at the beginning of “Sketches of Chikumagawa,” he wrote about the horse market in Nobeyama Plain, where about 300 horses and 4,000 people gathered. Toson also led students on a school excursion to Komoro Gijuku. In “Sketches of the Chikumagawa River,” he uses the term “plateau” for the first time.
This term “plateau” did not exist in Japan during the Edo period.
Karuizawa Plateau was not used as a unique regional name until the 1907’s, at the beginning of the 20th century.
A photo postcard issued at the end of the Meiji period (1868-1912) shows the name “karuizawa plateau” (Karuizawa plateau) written in English.
Karuizawa was the first to adopt the endemic region name Karuizawa Plateau.
Incidentally, the name “Shiga Kogen” was first used in 1918. The name Shiga Kogen was used in a petition submitted by the chairman of the Shimotakai County Association to the governor of Nagano Prefecture.
The name Tateshina Highlands in Suwa was next, and has been used since the early Showa period. However, it was not until the 1950s, after World War II, that many of the highlands in Nagano Prefecture, including Nobeyama Kogen, began to use the name “Kogen.
- ~[Column] “Highlands” in Karuizawa written by Yasunari Kawabata
- The residences of the Marquis Hosokawa and the Duke Maeda, depicted in Kawabata Yasunari’s novel “Highlands,” are typical of Karuizawa’s villas.
Highlands” is a short novel written in 1939 in Karuizawa, at the height of the Sino-Japanese War.
In the story, a young man and woman visit the residence of Marquis Hosokawa at the recommendation of their older sister, and describe the beauty of the rows of fir, ochiba pine, and katsura trees.
Kawabata wrote that the trees were elms, but in fact they were Katsura trees. Kawabata said that the Katsura trees, planted around 1918, had a feminine, gentle appearance, while the fir trees were masculine and strongly pointed toward the sky, and the ochiba pine trees were slender and frankly growing in the middle. Kawabata also noted that it was nice that there were no other trees in the area.
These tree-lined avenues were more than a meter wide and served as the Hosokawa family’s horseback riding path. Although 80 years have passed since “Plateau” was written, a visit to the former Hosokawa and Maeda residences today reveals that although the trees have grown, they still look as they did when they were planted, both in composition and form. As Kawabata says, “The order in which the trees were planted has been preserved.
Although the Hosokawa Residence is now owned by an automobile manufacturer and the Maeda Residence by a chemical fiber company, the gardens and buildings, with some exceptions, have been preserved as they were when they were built.
