Hachikokuyama Park
This is a green park located at the eastern edge of the gently rolling Sayama Hills, which is also famous as a model of Nanakuniyama that appears in the anime movie “My Neighbor Totoro.”
The ridge track, which is the closest satoyama—the border area between mountain foothills and arable flat land—to the city center, has an altitude of 89.4 meters, and runs 1.9 kilometers from east to west, has moderate ups and downs, is easy to walk, and is ideal for walking.
The name Hachikokuyama is said to be derived from the fact that eight provinces—Kozuke, Shimotsuke, Hitachi, Awa, Sagami, Suruga, Shinano, and Kai—could be seen from its top in the past.
The entire park is covered with thickets of konara oak (Quercus serrata), sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima), and the like, and you can come across various wild birds and insects.
This area is said to be an ancient battlefield of the Kamakura period, and at the top of the mountain, there is a shogunzuka—a mound where a clay shogun statue is buried —in memory of Nitta Yoshisada’s conquest of the Musashi Plain, and at the foot of the mountain, a monument has been put up to commemorate the ancient battlefield of Kumegawa.
