Geology wrote the script at Akame. Along roughly four kilometers of the Takigawa gorge in Akame-cho, Nabari City, Mie Prefecture, a chain of stepped waterfalls descends a tributary valley of the Uda River — the Akame Shijuhachi-taki, or "Akame Forty-Eight Falls," one of several Japanese fall-groups counted in the traditional forty-eight. The steps exist because the local Muro volcanic rocks, a rhyolitic welded tuff, cooled into vertical columnar joints that fracture into ledges across the riverbed. None of the drops is tall — the falls are noted instead for unusually large plunge pools. The gorge joined the Muro-Akame-Aoyama Quasi-National Park in 1970, and in 1950 the Mainichi Shimbun's New Japan Top 100 Tourist Sites ranked it first in the waterfall category.
Visiting Akame 48 Falls
The falls extend along about 4 km of the Takigawa gorge in Akame-cho, Nabari City, Mie Prefecture. The area has been part of the Muro-Akame-Aoyama Quasi-National Park since 1970, where collecting plants without permission is prohibited.
