Hitsuhara Pass

The Hitsuhara Pass (坤有量; hitsuhara-ryō) is a mountain pass which runs in a south-west direction through Hitsuhara and Mount Hirayama. It serves as the main road passage between Chiha Prefecture and Fu Prefecture and traverses the range at 430 metres.

In the late 10th century, the plateau through which the road is now built was an area inhabited by vassals of the Kankachi clan, who governed the area at the time. After the Ikaya conquest of 1534, the pass was converted into a travellers' town, and most of the population left to find work in the developing cities. Its remaining residents were all but wiped out by a severe bout of disease which spread from Bu Prefecture in the mid-1800s.

The modern pass, which has concrete roads, signs, traffic lights and rails, was built very recently in the 1990s. Before then, the pass was nothing more than a dirt road, and only navigable with a land vehicle or by foot.