is the fourth-largest lake in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, located in central

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi ...

, south of

Mount Bandai is a stratovolcano located in Inawashiro-town, Bandai-town, and Kitashiobara village, in Yama-Gun, Fukushima prefecture. It is an active stratovolcano located to the north of Lake Inawashiro. Mount Bandai, including the Bandai heights, belo ...

. It is also known as the . The lake is located within the borders of

Bandai-Asahi National Park is a national park in the Tōhoku region, Honshū, Japan. The park site straddles over Fukushima Prefecture, Yamagata Prefecture, and Niigata Prefecture. The park was designated as a national park on September 5, 1950. The park encompasses 186, ...

. It is a surface area of , circumference of , depth of and is located at an altitude of . In winter

swan Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Som ...

s migrate to the beaches of the lake and stay there until spring.

History

Lake Inawashiro was formed some 30–40,000 years ago when a tectonic depression was dammed by a major eruption and

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

from

. The water is acidic with a pH value of approximately 5.0, and has a high degree of transparency. The water level was considerably less during the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

as numerous artifacts and ceramic fragments have been found offshore. The lake water is an important source for irrigation in the

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princi ...

region of western Fukushima Prefecture. An irrigation canal was completed during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

and another, the Asaka Canal, in 1882. A third canal completed in 1915 supplies the city of

Kōriyama is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 322,996 people in 141760 households, and a population density of 430 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Kōriyama is designated as a core city an ...

with drinking and industrial water. The water also supplies a number of

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

plants. The lake is also an important tourist and leisure attraction in Fukushima Prefecture.

Notes

References

*
World Lake Database

External links

Inawashiro Tourist AccosiationLake Inawashiro
Japanese travel guide)
Lake Inawashiro
visit AIZU) Inawashiro Tourist attractions in Fukushima Prefecture Lake Inawashiro Landforms of Fukushima Prefecture Inawashiro, Fukushima Aizuwakamatsu Kōriyama Inawashiro {{Fukushima-geo-stub

History

Notes

References

See also

External links