Befukyo Gorge

What sets Befukyo Gorge apart from other natural sites in Kochi is how much depends on conditions outside anyone's control.

Befukyo is at the head of the Monobe river in the Tsurugi quasi-national park, an hour and twenty minutes into the mountains from the nearest expressway exit, and in November the whole slope turns at once. It is the best-known autumn gorge in Kochi and it is a long way from anything — the drive up the Monobe valley from Tosa-Yamada is the reason most people only do it once a year.

There are walking paths along the river, a suspension bridge, and clear green water at the bottom of a steep V. Two hundred free parking spaces at the entrance tell you what a November weekend looks like; the rest of the year the valley is essentially empty. The Monobe area is also the home of Izanagi-ryu, a surviving folk religious tradition of ritual specialists that exists nowhere else in Japan.