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Nikko NP, Tochigi
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
A 10-meter boulder called Gokoiwa has a hole eroded through its center. Its name means “Five-Light Rock”: legend says water in the opening once refracted light into 5 colors—a sight no longer seen today.
After floods and other calamities, locals moved Goryuo Shrine’s dragon-god statue to this cliff in 1929. Carved in 1825, Takao no Mikoto protects the Kinugawa and Kawaji hot springs; worshippers pray for rain, harvests, school and work.
A local proposal led to a riverside trail in 1949. The next year, the gorge entered a national gorge contest as “Kinugawa-Kawaji Ryuokyo,” placed 5th with 513,895 votes, and gained the “Dragon King” name inspired by its winding course.
Nijimi Falls drops 20 meters where its tributary meets Kinugawa. Harder, hornblende-bearing volcanic rock eroded more slowly than the softer rhyolite below, leaving the tributary valley perched above the main river.
Along the lower gorge, the rocks change from white rhyolite downstream to green tuff midstream and purple andesite upstream. These volcanic rocks tell a story that began around 22 million years ago, when the area was under the sea.
The green tuff in Seiryu, the “Blue Dragon” section, is the same kind of rock as Oya stone, the well-known building stone quarried near Utsunomiya. At Ryuokyo, you can see it forming the natural gorge walls.
At Tohane, or “Rabbit Jump,” the gorge narrows to just 4 meters. The name imagines a hare clearing the gap—and marks the narrowest point along Ryuokyo.
The circular kame-ana, or “pot holes,” were drilled into the rock as swirling water spun pebbles against it. In the upstream Shiryu section, some sit just 1 meter above today’s waterline; similar holes downstream are much higher on the cliffs.
One local explanation says 鬼怒川 means “angry demon river”: after floods, roaring water and tumbling stones sounded like an oni. The river also appears historically as 毛野川, 絹川 and 衣川, so its name has several explanations.
Nijimi means “Rainbow View”: sunlight catches the waterfall’s spray and can create vivid rainbows, especially on sunny mornings. The name describes a real effect visitors may see above Kinugawa.
At Tategoto Falls, water splits into many fine streams as it runs down the rock. Tategoto means “harp,” and the falling ribbons resemble the instrument’s strings.
