Lake Suwa on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
is a
Local
Hokusai included Lake Suwa in his famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) series of woodblock prints.
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
in the Kiso Mountains, in the central region of Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
Geography
The lake is the source of the Tenryū River. It ranks 24th in lake water surface area in Japan. The cities of Suwa and Okaya and the town of Shimosuwa are located on the shores of Lake Suwa.Omiwatari
Lake Suwa is the site of a natural phenomenon known as the , large cracks that form in the winter across the surface of the frozen lake. A vertical temperature gradient results in ice pressure ridges forming in the surface ice, reaching heights of or more.
Local Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
tradition holds that the ridges are formed by the gods crossing the lake when traveling between the various buildings of the Suwa Grand Shrine. Folklore says it is the guardian god of Suwa, Takeminakata-no-kami, leaving his sanctuary to meet with his wife, the goddess , joining the opposite bank by walking on frozen water. The record of this crossing is the oldest-known human-observed climate record. This record has been used by scientists to study the impact of sunspots, human development and anthropogenic CO2 emissions on lake ice formation.
The lake has a natural hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...
under its surface. Recreational development in the 1950s resulted in increased output from this underwater geyser. Since 1945, complete ice cover is considered to be achieved when the entire surface is frozen except for the opening in the ice for the geyser.
As a shallow lake, Lake Suwa is highly sensitive to climatic variation. Recent studies have shown that Suwa's ice-free years correlate to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels. Research on ice breakup at Suwa and at the mouth of the Torne River
The Torne, also known as the Tornio ( fi, Tornionjoki, sv, Torne älv, , se, Duortneseatnu, fit, Tornionväylä), is a river in northern Sweden and Finland. For approximately half of its length, it defines the border between these two countr ...
in Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
suggest that climate change is driving the changes in seasonal ice cover. As a result, it is expected that Lake Suwa will remain ice-free for almost the entirety of the 21st century's winters.
Cultural history
Lake Suwa hosts two major shrines, the Tenaga Jinja and the Suwa Jinja. Major festivals include the Onbashira and Setsubun.
Hokusai included Lake Suwa in his famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) series of woodblock prints.
Epson
Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano ...
, a global technology company, was founded and is headquartered in Suwa.
In popular culture
In the movie ''Kagemusha
is a 1980 jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate the dying ''daimyō'' Takeda Shingen to dissuade opposing lords fr ...
'' by Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
, the corpse of Lord Shingen is dropped into the lake. This film dramatizes the events leading up to the 1575 Battle of Nagashino
The took place in 1575 near Nagashino Castle on the plain of Shitaragahara in the Mikawa Province of Japan. Takeda Katsuyori attacked the castle when Okudaira Sadamasa rejoined the Tokugawa, and when his original plot with Oga Yashiro for t ...
.
Sayo Masuda, author of '' Autobiography of a Geisha'', was sold by her family to an okiya (geisha house) in Suwa at the age of 12. She tries to drown herself in the lake, but hesitates because she believes a dragon (possibly related to the omiwatari) inhabits it.
*In the anime ''Rurouni Kenshin
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his wor ...
'', legend holds of an "Elixir of Immortality" that can be found somewhere in or around Lake Suwa. The main characters search for the elixir in the final season of the series and are followed by a band of evil German knights, seeking it for world domination.
*The anime ''Blood-C
''Blood-C'' (stylized as ''BLOOD-C'') is a 2011 Japanese anime television series co-created by studio Production I.G and manga artist group CLAMP. It is the second anime series in the ''Blood'' franchise following the 2005–2006 seri ...
'' takes place in a rural town located on the shore of the lake.
*Suwako Moriya from the '' Touhou Project'' is named after the lake.
*This lake is also popular because from the movie of ''Your Name
is a 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film produced by CoMix Wave Films. It depicts a high school boy in Tokyo and a high school girl in the Japanese countryside who suddenly and inexplicably begin to swap bodies. The film was commis ...
'' as it gained its tourist visitors. The Itomori town where Mitsuha (Main Female Protagonist) lived was modeled after the Lake Suwa in Gifu.
See also
* Onbashira *List of lakes in Japan
The list of lakes in Japan ranked by surface area.
1) For lakes in the Hokkaidō region, Subprefecture is listed
See also
*List of lakes by area
*List of lakes by depth
*List of lakes by volume
References
*The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infra ...
References
{{Authority control Suwa Landforms of Nagano Prefecture Kiso Mountains