Few waterfalls in Japan carry as many honors as Fukuroda Falls. Descending in four tiers for a combined 120 meters, and spreading 73 meters wide, it sits on the upper Taki River, a tributary of the Kuji River in Daigo, Ibaraki Prefecture. It is a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty, is often counted with Kegon and Nachi among Japan's three great waterfalls, and took first place in the 1990 popularity vote held for the Top 100 selection. In winter the falls can freeze into an ice wall — a phenomenon that draws ice climbers, though the last complete freeze was in 2012. In the Edo period these lands belonged to the Mito domain, and Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the lord remembered as Mito Kōmon, is said to have visited.
Visiting Fukuroda Falls
The falls are in the town of Daigo, Kuji District, Ibaraki Prefecture, within the Oku-Kuji Prefectural Natural Park — unusually for a fall of this rank, it lies in neither a national nor a quasi-national park, unlike Kegon (Nikkō National Park) and Nachi (Yoshino-Kumano National Park). Winter brings the chance of seeing the partially frozen falls.
