Kusshii (Monster of Lake Kussharo)

Lake Kussharo lies sprawled across the land of Teshikaga in eastern Hokkaido — Japan's largest caldera lake, and the widest freshwater lake in the country to freeze over entirely each winter. Its name derives from the Ainu word *Kutchara*, meaning "the mouth where the water of the marsh flows out," and it is said that since time immemorial, that name has carried with it the faint presence of something not quite human.

From the 1970s onward, a succession of witnesses came forward claiming to have seen enormous ripples and dark, swelling shapes rising from the surface of the lake. The locals came to call this presence *Kusshii*, and the rumors spread across the country with startling speed. Some described a creature stretching dozens of meters in length; others spoke of a long-necked beast glimpsed from the shore — yet every account remains firmly within the realm of hearsay.

The Kussharo caldera took shape over some one million six hundred thousand years of geological time, and the deepest point of the lake floor — believed to lie near the eastern shore of the Wakoto Peninsula — is estimated to plunge beyond one hundred meters. The greater part of the water feeding the lake seeps in silently from underground, filtering up through the lakebed itself. What dwells at the far end of those dark passages, no one can say.

At the center of the lake floats Nakajima, the largest island within any lake in Japan. Once the summit of a volcano ringed by a tuff crater, the island now gazes quietly down upon the water surrounding it on all sides. That so many of the sightings have been reported in the waters around Nakajima — whether this is mere coincidence is a question left unanswered.

From a cryptozoological standpoint, Kusshii is frequently spoken of in the same breath as Issie and Nessie. Yet to this day, no physical evidence has been found to confirm its existence, and there are those who argue that large fish, drifting logs, or geothermal gas venting from the lakebed may have given rise to the misidentifications. The rumors drift on still, suspended in the mist that clings to the lakeshore.