One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Kaminokuni上ノ国町
Where Japanese Hokkaido began, on a hill above the sea
Hiyama region · The quiet Japan Sea coast where the herring boom lives on.
Kaminokuni guards the ruins of Katsuyama-date — the medieval fort where Japanese Hokkaido began five centuries ago.
Kaminokuni is the town just south of Esashi where the Japanese presence in Hokkaido first took root. On Iozan, the hill above the harbor, lie the excavated ruins of Katsuyama-date, a fifteenth-century fortified settlement whose founder went on to establish the Matsumae clan. Below it the Amanogawa river runs to the Japan Sea past some of the oldest surviving buildings in Hokkaido. It suits travelers who like their history quiet and their sunsets uninterrupted.
- Region
- Hiyama (檜山)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~232 km · 3.6 h summer / 4.2 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~242 km · 3.7 h summer / 4.4 h winter
- Best season in Hiyama
- Summer for Okushiri's water and uni; August for Esashi's famous Ubagami shrine festival.
Kaminokuni at a glance
Drive estimates: straight-line × 1.35, at 65 km/h (summer) / 55 km/h (winter). How we calculate
What to see in Kaminokuni
Katsuyama-date ruins and Iozan
勝山館跡と夷王山
A national historic site on the hillside: the outline of a fifteenth-century fortified town, with excavated house foundations, a moat and a guidance center explaining what came out of the ground. The hilltop looks over the whole coast.
Old Sasanami house
旧笹浪家住宅
One of the oldest surviving houses in Hokkaido, a herring-family home from the early nineteenth century with its storehouse, now a national important cultural property open to visitors near the river mouth.
Michi-no-Eki Kaminokuni Monju
道の駅 上ノ国もんじゅ
A roadside station on a cliff above Route 228, facing straight west over the Japan Sea. Local produce and seafood inside, and a lookout that fills up at sunset.
Getting to Kaminokuni
By car from Hakodate, follow Route 228 along the coast through Kikonai, about 1.5 hours. The last rail stop on that road is Kikonai on the Hokkaido Shinkansen and Donan Isaribi Railway; Hakodate Airport is the closest airport. Esashi is ten minutes north, so the two towns are easily done together. No railway serves Kaminokuni itself.
Hiyama region: Reach Esashi by car or bus from Hakodate (about 1.5 hours); ferries to Okushiri run from Esashi and Setana.
When to visit Kaminokuni
May to October for the ruins, when the hillside paths are clear of snow and the excavated site can be walked properly. Summer evenings for the sunsets from Iozan and the roadside station. The river valley turns color in October.
What to eat in Kaminokuni
The Japan Sea supplies squid, hokke mackerel, flatfish and sea urchin in season, and dried herring products carry on from the trading days. The Amanogawa valley grows rice and vegetables, and the roadside station is the easiest place to see what is in season.
Kaminokuni in context: the Hiyama region
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Hiyama is the Hokkaido almost no international traveler sees — a string of small ports down the Japan Sea coast where the 19th-century herring boom left merchant houses, shrine festivals and streetscapes that feel preserved rather than restored. Esashi, its historic heart, keeps an Edo-flavored main street above a working harbor.