Shiratani Unsui Gorge

Water, granite and moss shape everything in Shiratani Unsuikyo, a forested gorge in the north of Yakushima, the island off the southern tip of Kyushu. The Shiratani River, a tributary of the Miyanoura, runs over smooth granite boulders and through deep pools, while the forest around it is so wet that rocks, roots and fallen trunks disappear under a continuous green carpet of moss and ferns. Yakushima is one of the rainiest places in Japan, with an often-quoted local saying that it rains thirty-five days a month: the weather station on the island's lowland coast averages around 4,500 mm a year, and a rain gauge at the entrance to the gorge has recorded considerably more, over 10,000 mm in 2004.

The protected area covers about 424 hectares between roughly 600 and 1,100 m above sea level. Here the evergreen broadleaf forest of the lower slopes, with oaks, distylium and machilus, begins to mix with hemlock and fir, and gives way to the old Yakusugi cedars for which the island is known. The best-known of them, the Yayoi-sugi, is estimated to be around 3,000 years old and has become the emblem of the gorge. Stumps scattered through the woods are traces of cedar felling during the Edo period, when a stone-paved path, the Kusugawa trail, was also laid through the forest; it is still walked today. The Bugyo-sugi, another named giant, stands along one of the longer routes.

Higher up, the trail climbs through the moss forest, which is said to have served as a model for a famous Japanese animated film, to Taikoiwa, a great granite outcrop from which the central peaks of Yakushima spread out across the horizon. Further trails continue towards the island's interior, linking to the routes leading to Jomon-sugi and the summit of Miyanoura-dake. The gorge was designated a natural recreation forest in 1974 and lies within a special zone of Yakushima National Park; the surrounding forests have also been named among Japan's hundred finest water-source forests. A mountain hut built in 1979 stands within the area at 825 m.

Getting there

Shiratani Unsuikyo lies about 12 km from Miyanoura, the island's main port, reached by Kagoshima Prefectural Route 594; a route bus runs from Miyanoura. Yakushima Airport (KUM) is about 8 km away in a straight line.