Ebino Plateau

A field of susuki grass (Miscanthus sinensis) is located on the volcanic alluvial fan of the north-western slope of Mount Karakuni, and blooms red in autumn.

However, whether this is true or not is unknown, and an alternate theory suggests that the etymology of the name comes from the area being at the foot of the volcanic Mount Karakuni, which overlooks Kagoshima Bay.

If this version were to be taken as true, the name would still have been be read as “ebino” (江火野), but originally written with characters meaning “bay” (江), “fire” (火) (taken from the word “volcano” (火山)), and “field” (野).

Though originally there were only cabins designed to accommodate sulfur miners, in 1951 many Russian-style mountain huts were built around Fudo Lake (不動池 fudō ike) and began to attract hikers.

This began to change when the western regional director of the now-defunct Japanese National Railways (日本国有鉄道 nihon kokuyū tetsudō) visited the area, and affectionately nicknamed the local express train "Ebino".