Lake Kasumigaura

Introduction

Kasumigaura is Japan's second-largest freshwater lake after Biwa, a 220-square-kilometre system comprising Nishiura, Kitaura, Sotonamigaura and several river channels of the Tone basin, with Nishiura the largest at 172 square kilometres. It averages only 4 metres deep and reaches 7 metres. The name uses ura, bay, rather than ko, lake, because it began as a marine inlet sealed off by dunes and sandbars. Its signature sight is the white-sailed Kasumigaura sailing boat: a Meiji-era haul-net fishing craft for pond smelt and icefish, replaced by trawlers in 1967 and since revived for tourism, with companion boats sailing alongside from late July to early December. The technique was designated a national selected intangible folk cultural property in 2018. The Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Ring-Ring cycle route circles 180 kilometres of lakeshore and Tsukuba foothills, was named a national cycle route in 2019, and offers seven courses with eleven hire-and-return points. Winter brings waterfowl, early summer brings irises, and Tsuchiura's Kasumigaura Comprehensive Park adds a Dutch windmill, nature centre and day-use bath. Severe eutrophication in the 1970s led to a 1981 prefectural ordinance and the 1984 national lake-water law, making the shore both a leisure area and a case study in lake restoration.

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