Kegon Falls
Interesting facts
- A dam at the outlet of Lake Chūzenji sets the flow over Kegon, usually 1 to 2.5 tonnes of water per second by day and about 0.5 at night.
- During a typhoon in October 2018 the flow over the falls swelled to about 55 tonnes of water per second.
- After a dry autumn in 2023 the daytime release was cut to 0.1–0.3 tonnes per second, so the main fall briefly carried less water than the seeping Twelve Falls.
- At normal flow the main plunge is only about 7 metres wide, making its 97-metre drop look like a narrow white column.
- According to one theory, the falls once stood about 800 metres further downstream and have cut their gorge by slowly retreating up the valley.
- Nearby falls in the gorge are named Agon, Hōtō, Hannya and Nehan, matching the Tendai school's scheme of the Buddha's teachings alongside Kegon.
- Lake Chūzenji, the falls' only source, lies at 1,269 metres above sea level and reaches a depth of 163 metres.
- The spot called Umagaeshi, "horse turn-back", recalls that the sacred upper valley was once closed to women, horses and cattle, a ban lifted only in 1872.
- Kegon was included in Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls in 1990 and among the country's 100 selected geological sites in 2007.
Why it is worth it
A single column of water drops 97 metres down a sheer volcanic wall, while a curtain of a dozen thinner streams seeps out of the cliff face around it. Kegon Falls is the only outlet of Lake Chūzenji, high in the mountains above Nikkō, and it is counted among the three most celebrated waterfalls in Japan, alongside Fukuroda and Nachi.
The landscape here was shaped by fire. Around 20,000 years ago an eruption of Mount Nantai dammed the valley and created Lake Chūzenji; the short Ōjiri River now spills from the lake and plunges over the edge of the old lava flows. The rock is young and brittle: water leaking through cracks in it feeds the so-called Twelve Falls, a fringe of small cascades that emerge midway down the cliff and never run dry. Below the main drop, a steep V-shaped gorge continues downstream, carved as the falls slowly ate their way back into the soft volcanic deposits. Parts of the lip of the falls collapsed in 1986, and the slope was later stabilised with rock anchors set from inside the cliff so that no concrete would show on its face.
Tradition credits the discovery of the falls to the Buddhist priest Shōdō, the monk who first climbed Mount Nantai in the 8th century, and the name is said to come from the Kegon (Avatamsaka) Sutra; other falls in the gorge carry the names of further Buddhist scriptures. In 1927 Kegon was chosen as one of the Eight Views of Japan, and in 1931 the falls and the lakeshore were designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty. An elevator descends to a viewing platform facing the plunge pool, and the Akechidaira lookout across the valley shows the falls together with the lake and Mount Nantai — a view at its most vivid when the surrounding forest turns red and gold in autumn.
The town of Nikkō, in Tochigi Prefecture, lies down in the valley. It is best known for the lavishly decorated shrines and temples of Tōshō-gū and Rinnō-ji, inscribed together by UNESCO as the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō, and it is the gateway to Nikkō National Park, established in 1934.
Getting there
Kegon Falls lies about 10 km west of central Nikkō, at the top of the Irohazaka mountain road. Buses from JR Nikkō and Tōbu-Nikkō stations run to Chūzenji Onsen, a few minutes' walk from the falls; Tōbu-Nikkō has direct trains from Asakusa in Tokyo, including a limited express named Kegon after the falls. The nearest airport is Fukushima Airport (FKS), about 99 km away in a straight line across the mountains.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Nikkō Tōshō-gū 8.9 km · shinto-shrine
- Shrines and Temples of Nikkō 9.8 km · temple
- Cedar Avenue of Nikkō 16.9 km · remarkable-tree
- Tobu World Square 20.3 km · miniature-park
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Kegon Falls is located at Lake Chūzenji in Nikkō National Park near the city of Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The falls were formed when the Daiya River was rerouted by lava flows. The main falls had a height of approximately 97 metres (318 ft) and about twelve smaller waterfalls are situated behind and to the sides of Kegon Falls, leaking through the many cracks between the mountain and the lava flows.
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