Kankakei Gorge was added to Your Favorites!
Setonaikai NP, Kagawa
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
The Yahatamaimai, nicknamed the Kankakei snail, can grow a shell 5.5 cm across—and is found nowhere else on Earth but the agglomerate-rock belt of central Shodoshima.
The summit menu turns maple leaves into a local soda using maple-leaf extract, and pairs it with an Olive Beef croquette burger that the ropeway company calls a Kankakei original.
Matsutake Rock really is a stone mushroom: hard andesite resists erosion while softer volcanic breccia underneath wears away, leaving a narrow stem. The same layered rock forms Kankakei’s natural Stone Gate.
Kankakei-nira, a chive relative, is a cool-climate holdout from the Ice Age. As the island warmed, it survived in cool highlands and ravines; its pale pink flowers appear in August and September.
Sekimon-do, a cave temple in Kankakei, is both one of the Ura 8 scenic views and No. 18 on Shodoshima’s 88-temple pilgrimage. Temple tradition says Kobo Daishi once practiced goma rites in its cave.
Shodoshima forsythia grows wild only on the island’s agglomerate-rock belt, including a small colony on a Kankakei ridge. Its understated yellow flowers bloom from late April into May.
In winter, Kankakei’s Japanese macaques huddle in tight clusters to keep warm—a behavior nicknamed “monkey dumpling.” Kagawa’s nature guide map notes this cozy troop habit in the gorge.
In 1898, islanders formed a scenic-preservation society for Kankakei, planted trees and improved paths. The gorge became a national Place of Scenic Beauty in 1923 and part of Setonaikai, one of Japan’s first 3 national parks, in 1934.
The 720-compiled Nihon Shoki records Emperor Ōjin visiting Shodoshima; local lore—not that brief chronicle entry—says he hooked these cliffs to climb them. The old names Kagi-kake and Kamikake echo the tale; Fujisawa Nangaku named it Kankakei in 1878.
Kankakei’s granite foundation formed underground in eastern Asia about 80 million years ago. As the Sea of Japan opened around 15 million years ago, Shodoshima shifted to its present position; later volcanoes laid the rocks now carved into the gorge.
Kankakei’s scenery is catalogued as 20 named views: 12 on the Omote route and 8 on the Ura. Some names turn the rocks into miniature poems, including Matsutake Rock, Horagai Rock and Jade Bamboo Shoot Peak.
A 2022 Setouchi Triennale artwork remains near Kankakei’s summit: sculptor Noe Aoki’s Sora no Tama (“Sphere in the Sky”) stands by a lookout about a 10-minute walk from the ropeway station.
