With all the beauty that Japanese nature offers, did you know there are waterfalls as well? In fact, waterfalls are quite numerous in the Japanese landscape. Today we will take a look at one of the most beautiful falls there is: the Kegon Falls (華厳滝)

The Kegon Falls are located at Lake Chūzenji in Nikkō National Park near the city of Nikkō, in the Tochigi Prefecture. The falls were formed when the Daiya River was rerouted by lava flows. The main falls had a height of approximately 97 metres 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.

In 1927, the Kegon Falls was recognized as one of the “Eight Views” which best showed Japan and its culture in the Shōwa period. It is also listed as one of the “Japan’s Top 100 Waterfalls”, in a listing published by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in 1990. In the autumn, the traffic on the road from Nikko to Chūzenji can sometimes slow to a crawl as visitors come to see the fall colors. 

The beauty and timelessness of the falls attracted desperate people as well which committed suicide in their waters. For example Misao Fujimura , a Japanese philosophy student and poet, is largely remembered due to his farewell poem written directly on the trunk of a tree before committing suicide by jumping from the Kegon Falls.

The story was soon sensationalized in contemporary newspapers and was commented upon by the famed writer Natsume Sōseki. This led the famed scenic falls to become a notorious spot for lovetorn or otherwise desperate people to take their lives.

Even though there is a dark side as well, the Kegon falls are beautiful and definitely worth a visit.