Every year, in the first three days of October, Ainu from all over Hokkaido celebrate the Kamuinomi ritual here and return to the lake the marimo, the alga declared a Special Natural Monument of Japan in 1950 which, in its mature form, grows wild in no other lake in the world.
The Marimo Matsuri began in 1950 to protect this round alga, now classified as an endangered species by Japan's Ministry of the Environment, and return it to the lake; besides the Kamuinomi, the rite includes a torchlit procession and traditional Ainu dances. The village that hosts it today was founded about ten years later, in 1959, under an agreement between Ainu residents and local landowners: since then it has been both a shopping district and a place where people live.
An Ainu village founded in 1959, when local landowners made the land available free of charge and allowed Ainu, who had come from various parts of Hokkaido, to sell wood carvings to tourists. It is, in the encyclopedia's words, ‘店舗の立ち並ぶ商店街であり、人の暮らす集落である’ (a shopping street lined with shops, and at the same time a settlement where people live): not a paid attraction, with free entry. It is in Kushiro, next to the Lake Akan hot spring area; address 〒085-0467 北海道釧路市阿寒町阿寒湖温泉4丁目7-19.
ℹ️ Open access, free of charge, with no entry hours: it is a street of shops run by the residents, not a ticketed site (the individual shops have their own hours, not published on this page). Free car park with 50 spaces. By car it is about 74 km (1 hr 30 min) from JR Kushiro Station along National Routes 38 and 240, and about 56 km (1 hr) from Kushiro Airport along routes 65 and 240; it can also be reached by scheduled bus (about 1 hr 45 min from Kushiro, about 1 hr from the airport). Telephone: 0154-67-2727.
🚉 Lake Akan Bus center · 11 min walk
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