Akita · TazawakoNo.567★★★Open in map →

Lake Tazawa

natureThe classic — done right

The deepest lake in Japan: a near-circle of cobalt water held in the mountains of eastern Akita. On the western shore, one minute from a stop on the loop road, stands the gilded figure of Tatsuko, the girl of the legend that explains the lake.

FromTazawako Station
~30 minLoop bus, 5 a day
Get off atKatajiri (Ugo Kotsu Tazawako Loop Line)
On foot
Lake Tazawa

Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Gozanoishi ShrineFiras Kraïem / CC BY 3.0

Tatsuko Statuea gilded bronze of the girl in the legend, standing at the waterline at Katajiri
Kansagu Shrinea pale wooden hall beside the statue, said to enshrine a drift log washed ashore here
Gozanoishi Shrinea vermilion torii on the north shore, and the spring Tatsuko is said to have drunk from
Shirahamathe east-shore front at Harusan, with a lakeside path and the excursion-boat pier
The shore roada single surfaced circuit of the lake, shared by cyclists and the loop bus

How to actually get there

Tazawako Station → Katajiri (Ugo Kotsu Tazawako Loop Line, about 30 min; five departures a day).
Katajiri stop → the Tatsuko statue and Kansagu Shrine (1 min on foot).
Stay on the loop bus round to Gozanoishi Shrine on the north shore, then on to Shirahama on the east shore.
Shirahama → Tazawako Station (about 15 min; the Nyuto line serves this stop too).

Loop bus from Tazawako Station: Tazawako Station →(Ugo Kotsu Tazawako Loop Line, about 30 min)→ Katajiri, then one minute on foot to the statue. The loop runs five times a day. The three middle departures — 10:45, 13:25 and 15:25 from the station — are timetabled to hold at Katajiri for twenty minutes and at Gozanoishi Shrine for ten before finishing the circuit.
Completing the circuit: The full loop takes about ninety minutes and ends back at Tazawako Station, so the simplest plan is to stay on the same bus. The first and last runs of the day are cancelled on weekends, public holidays, the mid-August Obon period and the New Year, and neither of those two has any standing time built in. If you get off at Katajiri and miss your bus, the next one may be two hours away.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Lake Tazawa is a near-perfect circle about twenty kilometres around, and its floor drops to 423.4 metres — deeper than any other lake in Japan, and well below sea level. Almost no rivers feed it; the water comes up through springs in its own bed, which is part of why the blue shifts from lapis to indigo as the light moves across it. The surface does not freeze, even in the coldest weeks of an Akita winter. One surfaced road rings the shore, and one bus line follows that road, calling at the two places most visitors are here for: the Tatsuko statue at Katajiri and Gozanoishi Shrine on the north side.

How to enjoy it

The three middle departures are the ones that work, because each carries built-in standing time at the statue and at the shrine — you see both without waiting for another bus. People who live here will tell you the lake is at its best late in the day, when low sun turns the water from blue to gold. Between late April and early November you can swap one leg for the boat, which leaves Shirahama at 9:10, 11:10, 13:10 and 15:10 and takes forty minutes.

Background & history

Before the Meiji era the lake was written as Tatsuko-gata, after the girl in the story that still explains it. Tatsuko prayed to keep her beauty, was shown a spring in the hills, drank from it and could not stop drinking; she turned into a dragon and sank into the lake as its master. A dragon from Hachirogata to the north later joined her, and the telling ends by accounting for why that lagoon grew shallow while this lake stayed deep and never froze over. Gozanoishi Shrine takes its name from a rock where a lord of the Akita domain rested on a boat tour of the lake. The bronze on the shore is the work of the sculptor Funakoshi Yasutake.

Before you go

Cash: The shore, the statue and both shrines cost nothing to visit. The excursion boat and the bicycle and scooter hire on the east shore are paid, and the small lakeside counters here are safer approached with cash than with a card.
Good to know: The excursion boat runs from late April to early November only. The lake itself never freezes, but the shore road carries deep snow from December to March, buses on this route are delayed by weather, and Gozanoishi Shrine shortens its opening in winter.
Another way: From Kakunodate Station the lake is about forty minutes by bus. If you are continuing to Nyuto Onsen, the Nyuto line from Tazawako Station also calls at Tazawakohan on the east shore and runs about eleven times a day — far more often than the loop.
After you get off: From the Katajiri stop the statue is one minute away at the waterline, and Kansagu Shrine stands immediately beside it.