Hidaka Mountains

The Hidaka Mountains form a long barrier between the river country of southeastern Ezo. Rivers descending from the range connected Ainu communities with the highlands; the Saru, rising near Mount Poroshiri, was one of the most important of these links. Mountain names and traditions preserved a landscape understood through relationships between rivers, animals and powerful places. Stories of a lake deep in the mountains, inhabited by seaweed and sea creatures, were remembered on both sides of the range.

At its southern foot, difficult terrain also shaped travel along the coast. In 1799, the Tokugawa government improved the Samani mountain path between Fuyushima and Horoman to avoid the coastal cliffs. About eight kilometres long, it formed part of a land route from Hakodate toward the Kuril country. The work followed growing official concern about foreign ships and northern defence. These routes skirted the mountains rather than opening the high interior, joining an Ainu river-and-mountain landscape to the shogunate's expanding efforts to move people and supplies through eastern Ezo.