Nachi Falls is where waterfall and object of worship are one and the same. Falling 133 metres down a near-vertical cliff of quartz porphyry, 13 metres wide at the lip, it is the tallest single uninterrupted drop within Japan's administered territory, and it counts with Kegon and Fukuroda among the country's Three Great Waterfalls. The fall itself is believed to house the kami Hiryū Gongen, venerated at Kumano Nachi Taisha; two rocks at its crest are regarded as guardian kami, and each morning a Shinto priest makes offerings before the water. A Buddhist temple that once stood here was destroyed in the Meiji era. Designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty in 1972, it forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range."
Visiting Nachi Falls
The falls stands on the middle reaches of the Nachi River in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, within the precincts associated with Kumano Nachi Taisha — so clear of the coast ranges that it can be seen from the Kumano-nada sea. Artifacts excavated from a sutra mound at its base in 1918 — statues, mirrors, altar fittings, sutra cylinders — are displayed in the Ryūhōden treasure hall beside the three-story pagoda.
