Tokugoto Toge Hut

A mountain hut at about 2,130m on Tokugo Pass, the col linking Kamikochi with the Shimashima valley. It opened as a commercial hut in 1923 and marked its hundredth year in 2023. Before the road up the Azusa river existed, this pass was the main way into Kamikochi, crossed by Walter Weston, by the poet Kotaro Takamura and his wife Chieko, and by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Forty-five seconds above the hut is a viewpoint where the Hotaka range appears without warning; Kyuya Fukada called the view "the finest of Japan's mountain scenery" in his Hundred Famous Mountains. From Kappa bridge in Kamikochi it is 50 minutes to Myojin and 2 hours 40 minutes more to the pass; from Shimashima-juku the classic route runs about eight hours by way of Futamata and Iwanadome. The Taisho-era main building is preserved as a rest room and history exhibit, while guests sleep upstairs in the new wing under down quilts. Kerosene lamps light the evening, there are ten tent pitches, and the drinks are chilled with electricity from solar panels.