Otsuji Falls is proof the Top 100 rewards character over height. Just 6 meters tall but a full 100 meters wide, it stretches across the Abukuma River itself — the main stem, not a tributary — between Sukagawa City and Tamakawa Village in Fukushima Prefecture, earning the nickname "Little Niagara." The name comes from the water tracing the shape of the character 乙 (otsu) as it falls; the Abukuma bends in the same Z-like figure nearby. The haiku master Matsuo Basho is said to have composed a verse here — "samidare no taki furiuzumu mikasa kana" — now carved on a stone monument, and the grounds, with their Taki-Fudoson shrine and stone image of Prince Shotoku, are maintained as a park.
Visiting Otsuji Falls
The falls span the Abukuma River between Sukagawa and Tamakawa in Fukushima Prefecture. The surrounding area is maintained as a park, holding the Basho haiku monument, the Taki-Fudoson, and a stone statue of Prince Shotoku.
