Claiming back their fame: Ogose hydrangea this year

Did you know that Ogose has both an Hydrangea Road and an ajisai mountain!? Ajisai is the Japanese for hydrangea. Information for the 2026 season and festival included. But before you get too excited, unfortunately there is a bit of a tale of woe to divulge first….

Ogose Ajisai

The Ajisai-kaido (hydrangea road or hydrangea way) and Ajisaiyama (Mt Ajisai, ajisai is the Japanese for hydrangea) are in the area of Mugihara in Ogose. It was once a thriving rainy season attraction. Then a plague befell the beloved hydrangea of the area. The town were forced to cut down not only the ill fated hydrangea, but the unscathed hydrangea too as a fail safe from the flower disease spreading further. (It reminds me greatly of what happened to the plum blossoms in Ome City in Tokyo).

Ajisaiyama and Ajisai Kaido

Before the plague maimed the mountainside hydrangea there were thousands of the beautiful colored bushes. Moreover, the ‘hydrangea way’, which leads up to the hydrangea mountain, had about 5000 hydrangea lining the three kilometer road to the hydrangea mountain. However, nowadays, there are currently only about 1500 hydrangea on the Ajisai-kaido and even fewer still on the mountain, called Ajisayama park. But the town have been slowly replanting the hydrangea for the last ten years. They haven’t even replaced half the amount. Furthermore, many of the flowers are still in their infancy. However, they HAVE started to thrive again in 2024.

Ogose Hydrangea

In many parts of Saitama Prefecture, the hydrangea bloom for the month of June. Typically, the hydrangea in Ogose bloom a little bit later, from about mid June to early July. In 2024, according to Ogose town, they started blooming around June 1st. I initially wrote this post in 2021 about the 2020 season, when we visited while in the area for other attractions, such as the crying dam. I updated the post with photos in 2024 after visiting them on June 19th 2024. The photo above is from June 19th 2024. I was delighted to see so many in bloom on the road up to AND on the side of the mountain. However, the ones on the side of the mountain are behind net, so they are a little hard to photograph.

Both the bus stop and the large parking area for the Ajisaiyama Park are between two to three kilometers from the park. However, since 2024 they now have a medium sized parking lot right by the entrance to the park on the mountainside. If you use the larger car park 2.2 kilometers down the road, as I did, there is little along the route up to the park. Not even a vending machine. And if you are driving up to the new parking lot, please note that as it is a narrow country road, you cannot stop or pull in along the route. In addition, please note, the park has nothing in it except for a few benches and toilets. There are toilets in the large parking lot too. However, there is a little stream at the entrance to the park. It was a hot day when we visited in 2020 and my kids enjoyed paddling their feet in it.

Hydrangea Festival 2026

The 33rd annual hydrangea road festival is on four days in total: Saturday June 20th, Sunday June 21st, Saturday June 27th and Sunday June 28th 2026. It is on from 9 am to 3 pm and will most likely go ahead in the case of light rain, but maybe cancelled if there is heavy rain. The festival is on in the area around the places in this post. That is, the Ajisai Kaido and Ajisai Yama area. It is a small, local type hydrangea festival. But they will have yakisoba, snow cones and tarashi yaki mochi on sale at the festival! Official event flyer.

Information

Even more hydrangea in Saitama Prefecture

More than 40 places for hydrangea in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo including other off the beaten path locations in Tokigawa, Ogawa and Hanno.

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