Hotaka Bokujo
A six-lift Gunma area on Mount Hotaka where nine in ten visitors were snowboarders; it closed in 2017 and its snow park moved to a neighbouring resort.
- Region
- Gunma Prefecture
- Country
- Japan
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1979
- Year closed
- 2017
- Reason for closure
- Investment in the ageing facilities was judged too difficult, against visitor numbers well down from the peak years.
History
Hotaka Bokujo (武尊牧場スキー場) opened in 1979 on the eastern slopes of Mount Hotaka in Katashina Village, Gunma Prefecture. Six lifts - four pair and two single, the singles running until about 2010 - served ten courses from a 1,100 m base to a 1,460 m top, 360 m of vertical with a longest run of 3,000 m and a steepest pitch of 35 degrees. What set it apart was its clientele: around 90 per cent of its visitors were snowboarders, an unusually lopsided figure that made it one of the defining snowboard hills of the region. Visitor numbers fell well below their peak and investment in the ageing lifts was judged impractical, so it closed in 2017. Some of the lifts and the base buildings remain, the upper area now runs as a summer campsite, and the snow park was relocated to nearby Oguna Hotaka - so the thing the area was best known for outlived the area itself. Course names are not compiled in accessible sources; the coordinates mark Katashina Village.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 933 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 930 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 584 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 457 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Single | 482 m; the two single chairs ran until about 2010 | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Single | 371 m; the two single chairs ran until about 2010 |
Sources and further reading
More in Japan
Location
36.7723, 139.2253