Kegon Falls

Kegon Falls 華厳滝 - Kegon no Taki
Kegon Falls and Lake Chūzenji
Location	Nikkō National Park, Tochigi Prefecture, Honshū, Japan
Coordinates	36°44′17″N 139°30′09″E
Type	Plunge
Total height	97 metres (318 ft)
Number of drops	1
Total width	7 metres (23 ft)
Watercourse	Oshiri River

Kegon Falls (華厳滝, Kegon no Taki[1]) is located at Lake Chūzenji (source of the Oshiri River) 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.

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.

Kegon Falls in autumn.

In 1927, the Kegon Falls was recognized as one of the "Eight Views" which best showed Japan and its culture in the Shōwa period.[2] It is also listed as one of "Japan’s Top 100 Waterfalls", in a listing published by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in 1990.

The Kegon Falls are infamous as a site where individuals, especially Japanese youth, have committed suicide.[3]

Suicides

Video of the falls in winter

Death poem of Misao Fujimura.

Misao Fujimura (1886 – May 22, 1903), 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 youngsters to take their lives (Werther Effect).[4]

References

1. "栃木県／自然「滝・渓谷」華厳滝" (in Japanese). Tochigi Prefectural Government. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
2. 日本八景(昭和2年)の選定内容. Ministry of the Environment of Japan. Retrieved on March 3, 2012. (in Japanese)
3. "Lake Chūzenji". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
4. Iga, Mamoru (1978). "Suicide in Japan". Social Science & Medicine. Part A: Medical Psychology & Medical Sociology. 12 (4): 507–16. doi:10.1016/0271-7123(78)90118-9. PMID 734468. p. 519

土門公記（Domon Kouki）: 藤村操の手紙－華厳の滝に眠る16歳のメッセージ. Shimotsuke Shimbunsha, 2002, ISBN 4-88286-175-5

External links

• A trip to Kegon Falls with fall colours
• Tourism website for Kegon Falls (in Japanese)
• Why 200 people committed suicide near the Kegon Falls? An article about the history of the Falls and its dark side of suicides.