Ryusei-no-Taki Falls was added to Your Favorites!
Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
These neighbors are not geological twins: Ginga existed first. About 10,000–20,000 years ago, lava filled a valley beside it; rain and snowmelt later carved through the lava to create Ryūsei-no-Taki.
Even in Sōunkyō’s deep winter, Ryūsei keeps flowing: its heavy water volume prevents it from freezing completely. Next door, Ginga can freeze solid, leaving a striking contrast of moving water and ice.
First Myōto-daki (“Husband-and-Wife Falls,” 1872), then “Male and Female Falls” (1916), the pair got its poetic names through a 1923 tanka by forestry scholar Yoshinao Niijima: Ryūsei (“Shooting Star”) and Ginga (“Galaxy”).
At about 90 m, Ryūsei is shorter than Ginga, which drops about 120 m, yet its single, forceful plunge contrasts with Ginga’s slender stream. Ryūsei is often called the “male falls” for that bold flow.
A granite marker by the falls bears a poem by Emperor Shōwa from his 1968 stay in Sōunkyō. The visitor center points out a small mystery: records do not say whether he composed it at the falls themselves.
