Fukiware Falls

Fukiware Falls is a waterfall that seems to tear the riverbed open. The Katashina River, running over a broad shelf of pale grey rock, suddenly pours sideways into a narrow trench cut down the middle of its own bed, so the water tumbles in from three sides at once into a deep slot about 7 metres below. The drop is low, but the front of the falls stretches about 30 metres, and the effect of a whole river disappearing into a crack has earned it the nickname "the Niagara of the Orient". The name itself means roughly "blown and split", after the way the rock appears to have been cleaved apart.

The stone is welded tuff, laid down by a massive pyroclastic flow from a volcanic eruption some nine million years ago. Between the confluence of the Hikawa upstream and the Kurihara downstream, the Katashina has carved this rock into a gorge about a kilometre long, eroding the softer parts of the bed faster than the harder ones. The process is still visible: the lip of the falls is retreating upstream by several centimetres a year, and below it the river has drilled potholes six to seven metres across along their longest axis. Two smaller cascades and a series of named rock formations line the gorge, and a riverside path follows the water along the ledges.

The falls are a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty and Natural Monument and were included in the 1990 selection of Japan's hundred finest waterfalls. They have their own card in Jōmo Karuta, the traditional card game that teaches the landmarks of Gunma Prefecture, and served as a backdrop for the 2000 NHK historical drama Aoi. Local tradition connects the pool beneath the falls with a dragon palace that once lent villagers its bowls for feasts, one of many versions of a folktale told across Japan about borrowed dishes that were never returned.

Getting there

The falls are about 16 km from Numata, the nearest city; the road from Numata Interchange on the Kan'etsu Expressway runs east along National Route 120, and buses run from Numata Station on the JR Jōetsu Line. The nearest airport is Niigata Airport (KIJ), about 139 km away in a straight line, which is connected to the area by the Kan'etsu Expressway.