Ishikari River (石狩川, Ishikari-gawa?) is a river in Hokkaidō, Japan. At 268 kilometres (167 mi) in length, the river is the third longest in Japan and the longest in Hokkaidō. The river has a drainage area of 14,330 square kilometres (5,530 sq mi), making it the second largest in Japan, as is its total discharge of around 14.8 cubic kilometres (3.6 cu mi) per year.
It rises from Mount Ishikari and flows through Asahikawa and Sapporo. Major tributaries of the river include Chūbetsu, Uryū, Sorachi and Toyohira. Until 40,000 years ago, it fell into the Pacific Ocean near Tomakomai. Lava from the volcanic Shikotsu mountains dammed up the river and moved its mouth to the Sea of Japan.
The name of the river is derived from the Ainu word winding river. As it suggests, the river once meandered in the Ishikari plain and was as long as the Shinano River, the longest river in Japan. Massive construction shortened the river by 100 kilometers and left many oxbow lakes (三日月湖, mikatsuki ko?, lit. crescent moon lake) in the plain.
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