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Oze NP, Fukushima / Niigata
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The roar reaches the first platform before the view: the Oze Protection Foundation says it can drown out a companion’s voice. A second, lower platform gives a view of the whole fall.
The water below you has traveled through Oze: streams from Ozegahara and Ozenuma join as the Tadami River, pass Sanjo Falls, then continue through the Agano River to the Sea of Japan.
Japan’s Ministry of the Environment describes Sanjo Falls as having the country’s greatest water volume. Snowmelt brings its most powerful flow—but snow may still line the trail to the viewpoint.
The name has 2 proposed explanations: at low water the fall may split into 3 strands, or it may derive from Sanjūjō-no-taki, “30-jo waterfall.” The origin is not settled.
An 1804 map of Hinoemata already labels this fall 三丈の瀧. A later Edo-period gazetteer calls it Fudō Falls as well as Sanjō Falls, and records snowmelt as its fiercest season.
About 1 km upstream, Hirame Falls spreads the same Tadami River in delicate bands over a sloping rock bed. At Sanjo Falls, the river makes a sudden, thunderous plunge.
