S P O T ／ SPOT-067

Iwaya Kannon and Kiyotaki Falls

岩屋観音と清滝いわやかんのんときよたき

Deep in the upper reaches of the Sekisuikei ravine, in the Suzuka Mountains west of Kameyama, a small stone Kannon statue is enshrined inside a natural rock grotto, and a thin, slender waterfall called Kiyotaki ('Pure Falls') drops down the cliff face beside it. The combination of cave shrine and waterfall is a textbook example of Japanese mountain religion — water and stone elevated to the status of divinity, a Buddhist Kannon installed inside the natural form rather than in a built structure — and the site has functioned as a pilgrimage stop for at least several centuries. The walk in follows a streamside trail through ravine forest, with rope-and-chain sections in the steeper parts; the destination is intimate rather than grand, the kind of place where a single visitor and a single Buddha sit together for a few minutes in the sound of falling water. Avoid in heavy rain or in summer flood conditions, when the ravine becomes genuinely dangerous; in dry seasons, it is one of the most contemplative inland religious sites in the prefecture.