Nomugi Pass is where many girls aged around 13 climbed over in the heavy snow at the risk of their lives to work in silk mills in the Shinshu region such as the towns of Okaya and Suwa. Having taken a rest at the tea house called “Otasuke Jaya (Saving Tea House),” the girls went down through the bushes of tall groundcover bamboo and headed for the Shinshu and Hida regions.
Now from the top of the pass, you can command a panoramic view of Mt. Norikura in the north and Mt. Ontakesan in the south. The bamboo (Sasa veitchii) growing in this pass was called “Nomugi (wild oats)” because it comes into ear once every 10 years, and it looks like a wheatear, from which the name of the pass was derived.