Clear the Suwa Local Quiz and earn the Suwa Local title. Want to know Suwa even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
Where does the water of Lake Suwa come from, and where does it go? Questions like that set the tone for this quiz. Expect to be tested on the four sanctuaries of Suwa Taisha and the Onbashira Festival, the Kirigamine highlands, the kanten and soba nurtured by the basin's cold climate, and Okaya's remarkable turn from silk reeling to precision instruments. The Jomon Venus, a National Treasure clay figurine, makes an appearance too, alongside Takashima Castle by the lakeside. This is a region where geography, faith, and industry are tightly braided together, and the questions follow those threads. The question of the day gives you a feel for the format before the real challenge begins.
Read how the names differDuring the Onbashira Festival's mountain-hauling stage, what is the name for its most famous highlight — sliding a sacred log down a steep slope?
A new question every day — the real test is the quiz itself.
Take on this quizCorrect answerLake Suwa
Lake Suwa has the largest surface area of any lake in Nagano Prefecture, sitting at the low point of the Suwa Basin and gathering runoff from the surrounding mountains. Its drainage basin is many times larger than the lake itself, and the lake has long shaped the region's climate, its smelt fishing, and its tourism.
Source:諏訪湖の特徴編
Correct answerFour
Suwa Taisha has four shrines in total, two at the Upper Shrines and two at the Lower Shrines, and shisha-mairi visits all four in a set order. The Upper and Lower Shrines sit on opposite sides of Lake Suwa, and the customary visiting sequence has been passed down for generations.
Source:諏訪大社とは
Correct answerEvery 6 years (Tiger and Monkey years)
Formally called the Shikinen Zoei Onbashira Taisai, Suwa Taisha's grandest festival is held only in the Year of the Tiger and the Year of the Monkey, once every six years by Western counting. Huge logs are hauled down from the mountains and raised anew at the four corners of each sanctuary, and the sight of parishioners riding the logs down steep slopes marks one of the defining rhythms of life in Suwa.
Source:式年造営御柱大祭
Correct answerKiotoshi
During yamadashi, the mountain-hauling stage of the Onbashira Festival, the moment parishioners ride a great log straight down a steep slope — called kiotoshi — is considered the festival's single biggest highlight. Riders cling to the log without safety ropes as it plunges downhill, and images of this moment are among the most widely used to represent the festival itself.
Source:式年造営御柱大祭
Correct answer40
Lake Suwa's drainage basin covers about 531.2 square kilometers, roughly 40 times the lake's own surface area of 13.3 square kilometers. Rain and snowmelt falling anywhere within that broad basin eventually make their way into the lake, before draining out through its sole outlet, the Tenryu River, on the long journey toward the Pacific Ocean.
Source:諏訪湖の特徴編
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