Tachikue Gorge

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Tachikue GorgeIzumorock pillarsrakan statuesautumn foliage

Photo: Tatsuya Sakai / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · original

Tachikue Gorge looks different depending on the season, the weather, and the time of day — none of which a single photo can tell you.

Twenty minutes from central Izumo, the Kando River runs between walls of columnar rock rising 100 to 200 metres — eroded pinnacles and pillars standing in ranks along both banks. The comparison locals reach for is Yabakei in Kyushu, and the gorge is a designated prefectural natural park.

A walkway runs along the river with viewing points, and the route takes in two things worth stopping for: a set of five hundred rakan statues, weathered stone arhats set among the rocks, and Reikoji, a small temple below the cliffs. The signposted Chugoku Nature Trail circuit is about 2.6 kilometres and takes roughly forty minutes. There is a hot spring and a riverside campground at the mouth of the gorge. For a place this dramatic and this close to a major shrine town, the number of visitors is remarkably low.

Before you go

Access hours

Walkway open at all times

Closed: Open year-round | Paths may be icy in winter

Entry fee

Free

Best time to visit

Early–mid November for autumn colour | Late April–May for fresh green

Time to allow

40–90 minutes

Access route

Directions

Ottachi-cho, Izumo. By car from central Izumo, or roughly by bus from JR Izumo-shi Station; from Hikawa or Izumo IC via Route 184. Free to walk. Circuit route about 2.6 km, around 40 minutes. Riverside facilities including a campground and hot spring at the gorge mouth.

Local knowledge

**Walk the circuit rather than the viewpoint.** The car park view is fine and the 2.6-kilometre nature trail is much better — it puts you under the pillars rather than opposite them, and forty minutes covers it. **Find the rakan.** Five hundred weathered stone arhat figures are set among the rocks along the route, and they are easy to walk past because they are not signposted as an attraction so much as part of the landscape. They are the most photographed thing here for good reason. **Late autumn or fresh green.** Colour comes in around early to mid November and the fresh green of late April is the other strong window. Winter snow on the pillars is striking and the path can be icy. **Use it as the Izumo alternative.** Izumo Taisha absorbs almost all visitors to this city. Tachikue is twenty minutes away in the other direction and can be effectively empty on a weekday morning — a useful pressure valve in the October shrine season. **Bus is possible but slow.** Services from Izumo-shi Station take around half an hour and do not run frequently. If you have a car, use it.

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