Takachiho Gorge

Takachiho Gorge lies in the mountains of northern Miyazaki near the border with Kumamoto and Oita, just below the town of Takachiho. For about seven kilometres the Gokase River runs between vertical walls up to around 100 metres high, in places only a few metres apart.

The most famous section is a short stretch where the Manai Falls pour 17 metres from the cliff edge into the green river. Visitors row small boats up to the foot of the falls, and a path runs along the top of the gorge from the boat landing.

Takachiho is regarded as the place where the grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu descended to earth, and several sites of the Kojiki myths lie nearby. Its night kagura dances are among the most celebrated folk performing arts in Japan.

The walls of the gorge are welded tuff laid down by huge pyroclastic flows from the Aso caldera, some 60 kilometres to the north-west, in eruptions around 120,000 and 90,000 years ago. As the deposits cooled, they contracted into polygonal columns. The Gokase River then cut down along the joints, leaving smooth, fluted cliffs and pothole-like hollows in the riverbed.

The gorge is lined with evergreen and deciduous trees whose leaves turn in November. The cool, humid microclimate supports ferns and mosses on the walls.

In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Ninigi, grandson of Amaterasu, descended from heaven to Takachiho, and the sun goddess hid in a cave that tradition places at Amano-Iwato nearby. The Takachiho yokagura, 33 night-long kagura dances performed in village homes in winter, is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property; shorter performances are given every evening at Takachiho Shrine.