Nikko, Japan: Waterfalls, Cedar Forest and the Road North

Nikko, Japan, sits where the plain north of Tokyo runs up against the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, and almost everything about the place follows from that meeting. Rivers come down fast and cold out of volcanic country, waterfalls drop off old lava cliffs, and centuries-old cedar trees shade the roads and the shrines. Most visitors know Nikko for its gilded Tokugawa shrine, but the town is older than the shoguns by more than eight centuries and its setting is half the reason anyone built there at all. This guide covers the place itself: the sacred bridge over the Daiya River, the waterfall the poet Basho saw from behind, the great avenue of cedars, the quieter corners beyond the shrines, and the practical business of getting there from Tokyo and how much walking to expect. On our Walking Japan small group tour, the group arrives in Nikko by train at the end of Day 2 and begins Day 3 by walking from Urami Falls to the shrines before heading north.

Nikko, Japan: a mountain town older than the shoguns

Long before it became a Tokugawa showpiece, Nikko was a holy mountain. According to Rinno-ji temple, the Buddhist monk Shodo (735–817) founded the temple here in 766, and Japan’s tourism agency notes that religious practice at Nikko was a blend of Buddhism, Shinto and Shugendo, the ascetic mountain tradition, from as early as the eighth century. The focus of that worship was the volcanic peak of Mount Nantai, 2,486 metres high, which Japan’s Ministry of the Environment describes as having long been an object of worship. Shrine and temple grew up together for centuries, until a government decree of 1868 ordered Shinto and Buddhism separated; by 1871 Rinno-ji was the only Buddhist temple left at Nikko.

The shoguns arrived in the seventeenth century, when Nikko was chosen as the resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the town took on the political weight it still carries. That story, with its carved gates and its argument for Tokugawa legitimacy, is told in full in our article on Nikko Toshogu and the memory of the Tokugawa. What matters for a visitor is the result: in 1999 UNESCO inscribed the Shrines and Temples of Nikko, made up of Futarasan Shrine, Toshogu Shrine and Rinno-ji, as a World Heritage Site. According to Nikko City, the property includes 103 buildings, nine of them National Treasures and 94 Important Cultural Properties, all set in the cedar forest on the hillside above the river.

Shinkyo Bridge and the gateway to the shrines

The first thing most visitors see of sacred Nikko is Shinkyo, the Sacred Bridge, a vermilion-lacquered arch over the Daiya River at the foot of the shrine precinct. The Nikko City Tourism Association gives its length as 28 metres and its width as nearly eight. It belongs to Futarasan Shrine, and its story belongs to Shodo: when the monk could not cross the torrent, he prayed to the mountain gods, and two snakes appeared and turned themselves into a bridge. At the time of writing, stepping onto the bridge itself requires a ticket, payable in cash only, though it can be seen and photographed from the modern road bridge a few metres away.

A walk of about half an hour upstream from Shinkyo brings you to one of the quietest places in town. The Kanmangafuchi Abyss is a small gorge that, according to the tourism association, was created by an eruption of Mount Nantai around 7,000 years ago. A riverside path runs beside it, lined with around 70 stone statues of Jizo, the protector of travellers and children, many of them wearing red caps. Local legend holds that the number changes each time you try to count them. Sanskrit characters carved into the cliff upstream are said to be the work of Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism.

Urami Falls: the waterfall Basho saw from behind

Nikko has dozens of waterfalls, and the tourism association counts Urami Falls among the three finest, alongside Kegon and Kirifuri. It lies west of the town on the Arasawa River, a tributary of the Daiya, and drops about 45 metres in a narrow ribbon roughly two metres wide. Its name means something like the falls seen from behind, because pilgrims could once climb into the hollow of the cliff and look out through the falling water.

Matsuo Basho came here in 1689, early in the journey he recorded in Oku no Hosomichi, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He climbed into the hollow behind the water and wrote a verse still linked with the falls, usually rendered as “For a while, secluded in a waterfall: the start of the summer retreat.” The summer retreat was the season Buddhist monks spent in seclusion and meditation, and the verse pictures the poet briefly shut away like a monk at its start, his mind cleared by the falling water. A stone monument with the verse stands near the falls today. You can no longer follow him behind the water: according to local accounts, a flood in 1902 brought down part of the upper falls, and at the time of writing the space behind the falls is closed because the footing beneath the overhang is unsafe. A trail of about 500 metres climbs from the car park to a viewing platform opposite the falls. Recent visitors report a narrow path between rock faces in places, and the trail has been closed at times for rockfall prevention work, so check with the Nikko City Tourism Association before you go.

The cedar avenue and the forest around the shrines

The cedars are Nikko’s other great monument. The Cedar Avenue of Nikko runs for about 37 kilometres along three old roads into the town, the Nikko Kaido, the Reiheishi Kaido and the Aizu Nishi Kaido, and the Tochigi prefectural government notes that it holds the Guinness World Record as the longest tree-lined avenue in the world. The planting began in 1625 under Matsudaira Masatsuna and his son Masanobu, and took more than 20 years. Around 12,000 trees survive, some more than 400 years old, and the avenue is the only place in Japan designated both a Special Historic Site and a Special Natural Monument. Our guide to Toshogu Shrine tells the story of why Masatsuna gave trees instead of a stone lantern.

The trees need protection. Since 1996 the prefecture has covered exposed roots with soil, built wooden fences against erosion and laid hollow concrete beneath the ground to reduce soil compaction, and it reports that new fine roots are now growing. Sections of the avenue can be walked or cycled, and the forest continues up the hill and around the shrines themselves, so that even in summer the precinct feels cool and shaded.

Beyond the town: Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji

Above the town, a winding mountain road climbs to the high country of Okunikko. Here Lake Chuzenji lies at 1,269 metres, one of the highest lakes in Japan, formed when an eruption of Mount Nantai dammed the valley. Its outflow becomes Kegon Falls, which drops 97 metres down a sheer cliff into the gorge of the Daiya River. The whole area lies within Nikko National Park, designated in 1934, a volcanic landscape of mountains, lakes, falls and wetlands that stretches across Tochigi, Gunma and Fukushima prefectures. Okunikko is not part of the Walking Japan route, but it is well worth a long day trip of its own if you have time in Tokyo before the tour begins.

How do you get to Nikko from Tokyo?

The simplest way is by train, in about two hours. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, Tobu Railway runs trains to Nikko from Tobu Asakusa Station; the SPACIA limited express takes about two hours, all seats are reserved, and some services need a change at Shimo-Imaichi. Local trains are cheaper but take at least two and a half hours. Alternatively, JR’s Tohoku Shinkansen runs from Tokyo Station to Utsunomiya, where the JR Nikko Line continues to Nikko, for a total of about an hour and forty minutes. Both arrive near the foot of the town, and buses run from the stations to the shrines and up to Okunikko.

How long do you need in Nikko?

A full day covers the World Heritage shrines and temples, Shinkyo Bridge and a walk to Kanmangafuchi, but two days let you add a waterfall, the cedar avenue or the high country around Lake Chuzenji without rushing. Many people treat Nikko as a long day trip from Tokyo, and that is possible with an early train, but staying the night lets you reach the shrines early, before most day visitors arrive from Tokyo.

When is the best time to visit Nikko?

Late spring, early summer and autumn are the most rewarding times to visit Nikko. Autumn colour is the great draw: it begins on the high ground around Lake Chuzenji and works its way down the valley towards the town over several weeks, and the Nikko City Tourism Association publishes leaf reports each season. It also brings the heaviest crowds of the year, especially at weekends. Early summer is green, cool under the cedars and the season in which Basho came. Winter is cold and can bring snow, while weekdays at any time of year are noticeably calmer than weekends.

How much walking does a day in Nikko involve?

Expect a good deal of walking, on slopes and stone steps rather than flat pavement. The shrine precinct climbs the hillside on gravel and uneven stone paving, with flights of steps between the main halls and a long stone stairway through the forest to Ieyasu’s tomb. The Urami Falls trail is short but climbs and can be wet underfoot, so wear shoes with a good grip. Shoes come off inside several of the halls, which makes slip-on footwear useful, and it is worth checking the shrines’ current opening hours on their official websites before you plan your day.

Nikko and the road north on the Walking Japan tour

The tour reaches Nikko at the end of a long day in old Edo. Day 2 begins at Tsukiji fish market and continues on foot through downtown Tokyo to Fukagawa, home of Basho’s banana-tree hut, the Fukagawa Edo Shiryokan and the Basho Museum, then on through Asakusa and its Senso-ji temple; our article on Basho’s Tokyo, from Fukagawa to Asakusa covers that morning in detail. Main baggage is sent ahead by courier to Sendai, so the group travels with daypacks holding what is needed for the night. In the mid-afternoon everyone boards a train from Asakusa to Nikko, arriving in time for dinner.

On Day 3, the group takes taxis after breakfast to the entrance of Uramigataki, as Urami Falls is known in Japanese, and then walks back along country paths and roads to Toshogu Shrine, where the visit explains how the Tokugawa family united Japan at the beginning of the Edo period. A charter vehicle then carries the group about 80 kilometres north. Close to the Sakai-no-myojin Shrine, which Basho visited, everyone gets out to walk a section of the ancient Unohana Highway through pleasant hills and rice paddies to the Shirakawa Barrier, the formal entry point to the Tohoku region, clearly marked among giant cedar trees. Our article on the Shirakawa Barrier and Basho’s entry into Tohoku explains why this quiet clearing carried such weight for a thousand years of Japanese poets.

From the barrier the bus takes the group into the town of Shirakawa, famous for one of the three largest lantern festivals in Japan, and from there the Shinkansen covers a further 160 kilometres to Sendai, the centre of the Edo-period Date Domain, for the night. It is a long day and one of the most varied of the journey, moving from a waterfall and a shogun’s shrine to an old frontier road in a single sweep. For the shape of the whole route, see our overview of walking Basho’s Narrow Road from Tokyo to Kyoto.

The tour is rated Activity Level 3, Moderate to Challenging, with participants typically walking for up to five hours a day, and an Odyssey Program Leader travels with the group throughout. Nikko rewards anyone who arrives on foot, under the cedars and with the sound of water close by, and on the Walking Japan small group tour a group of up to 16 travellers does exactly that, before following Basho over the barrier and into the north.