Gōnoike, pond in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan

Gōnoike is an artificial pond in Kamisu park covering about 44 hectares with calm water and green trees lining its edges. Walking paths run all around the pond, making it easy to stroll at your own pace, and benches are placed throughout for sitting and watching the water. Ducks and other water birds often glide across the surface, and the area includes low fences and small bridges that blend into the landscape.

Gōnoike formed naturally about 1,200–1,400 years ago when the sea level fell and sand dunes and sediment cut off a freshwater basin, once nearly 289 hectares in a rounded shape. The Nara-period Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki (713) records it as Kanda Pond, already stocked with carp and crucian carp. From 1967 the Kashima coastal industrial development filled most of it; reclamation finished in 1971, leaving about one seventh, and the surrounding green park was laid out in 1973.

The name appears in the 713 Hitachi no Kuni Fudoki as Samuta-numa, and the pond was also called Kōno-ike in the 1823 Kashima Meisho Zukai. It supplied irrigation to surrounding villages, and water disputes were frequent, including the 1886 Gōnoike irrigation channel obstruction incident. Today the green park hosts the Kamisu Sakura Festival in early April and a fireworks display in mid-September.

The park has free parking, and the Kashima Rinkai Railway's Kashima Rinkō line crosses the grounds, but it is a freight line with no passenger service, so it cannot be used to reach the pond. The former Gonōike Station on that line was a freight stop closed around 1976. By public transport, take the Hasaki highway bus from Tokyo Station and get off at Kamisu City Hall, which adjoins the park.

The pond once covered about 289 hectares, roughly seven times its present 44 hectares. The 1969 embankment that split it in two now carries the Kashima Rinkai Railway, a freight line with no passenger service; its former Gōnoike station, also freight-only, closed around 1976. The reclaimed land became sites such as the Kao and DIC Kashima plants.