Ōboke Gorge

In Tokushima Prefecture the Yoshino River flows through the beautiful, rocky Ōboke Gorge near the entrance to the Iya Valley. The dramatic rapids on the river are popular with photographers and people who enjoy rafting.

Gentle boat rides are also available. The Ōboke Gorge Sightseeing Boat is a 30-minute river cruise operating on the Yoshino River. You board a flat-bottomed vessel and travel down a deep green channel flanked by near-vertical cliffs of crystalline schist. It’s an environment formed under the ocean floor around 200 million years ago. The rock faces feature a weathered light blue-grey exterior covering wave-like layers of solid green stone. You can often see cormorants resting on the rocks drying their wings. During winter months, the boats are equipped with low, wooden tables covered in heavy blankets with a heater inside. Between late March and late May, you pass beneath around 100 cloth carp streamers strung on cables suspended across the width of the V-shaped valley.

The gorge’s name translates to “big danger”, reflecting the historical difficulty of navigating the sheer rock walls on foot before the adjacent highway was cut directly into the rock.

The gorge is also home to many kinds of traditional Japanese monsters — you can find statues of them dotted about, there’s a museum for them at the Michi no Eki, and there’s a monster festival in November. These goblins are said to personify the various hazards of the gorge.

Information

Name in Japanese: 大歩危
Pronunciation: ō-boke
Address: Yamashirocho Shigezane, Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture 779-5422