Japan's Waterfalls

About this book

Japan is steep, wet and volcanic — one of the great waterfall countries of the world — and this is its falls book.

Japan's Waterfalls covers 200 falling-water places in one traveller's format: the falls themselves, their history with the people who worshipped and trained at them, how to visit and walk to them, and the specific safety note that belongs to that place. Kegon's 97-metre leap and Nachi's sacred curtain. Shomyo, the tallest water in Japan, with Hannoki, the twin that exists only while the snow melts. Fukuroda's four seasons of ice and green. The white threads of Shiraito, the jungle cataracts of Iriomote, the falls you can walk behind at Nabegataki and the gorge boats beneath Manai Falls at Takachiho.

It is honest where falling water demands it. A waterfall concentrates every hazard of a Japanese river into one small place, so safety is not a disclaimer in this book — it is part of the format, in all 200 entries: each closes with its own specific cautions and the same instruction to check the forecast, river levels and warnings in official sources, and the practical chapters teach you how to read high water, wet rock and warning signs before you ever stand at a plunge pool. Places you may only look at say so. Falls that are objects of worship are treated as such, and takigyo — standing under the jet — is presented as the religious practice it is, entered through temples and shrines, never improvised.

Come and read the country its falling water carved.