Attractions in the southern area of Shirakawa-go

Hirase Hot Springs

Description

This hot spring area is home to 2 minshuku (traditional guest houses) and 8 ryokan (traditional inns) in addition to baths such as “Oshirakawa Onsen Shiramizunoyu Hot Spring Public Bath” that are available to day visitors. The waters of Hirase hot springs have their source at the foot Mt. Hakusan, one of Japan’s three sacred mountains. Known as “Kodakara no Yu”, these waters have been gaining popularity due to their skin beautifying effects.

Visitor’s Guide

Miboro Dam

Description

The Miboro Dam towers over the southern edge of the present-day municipality of Shirakawa. Together with the hydroelectric power plant at its base, the dam produces electricity for the industrial city of Nagoya and the surrounding Chubu region. Situated on the Sho River, the rock-fill dam is 131 meters high and 56 meters thick, which made it the largest structure of its kind in Asia at the time of its completion in 1960. The presence of several fault lines deep underneath the dam site meant that the rock-fill structure was preferable to a concrete alternative. The building of the dam created Lake Miboro, flooding three settlements whose residents had to relocate. Two cherry trees from a temple submerged by the water were moved to the western side of the lake, to what is now Shokawazakura Park, where they serve as a reminder of the area’s past. 
 
Remnants of the former villages can be spotted from National Route 156 above the dam in spring, when the water level is at its lowest. Visitors can also walk on top of the dam, from where the views both downstream in the direction of Shirakawa-go and toward the lake are especially scenic in autumn. Dam enthusiasts may be interested in the Damside Park museum, which explains how the Miboro Dam was built and how it is currently used.

この英文解説は、2021年観光庁「地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業」により整備しています。
This English description is provided by the "Multilingual Commentary Project 2020" of Japan Tourism Agency.

Visitor’s Guide

 

Sakurakaido Shirakawa-go Hirase-onsen Camp Site

Description

A campsite located on the opposite shore of the Shogawa River to the Hirase Hot Springs village. In combination with the hot springs, you can enjoy outdoor life to the full.

Visitor’s Guide

Mt. Haku: A Sacred Peak

Description

Mt. Haku, or Hakusan, is, along with Mt. Fuji and Mt. Tate (also Tateyama, in Toyama Prefecture), considered one of the three great sacred peaks of Japan, and has been an object of reverence from prehistoric times to the present. The 2,702-meter volcano has erupted repeatedly over the centuries, most recently in 1659. Its unpredictable power has throughout history inspired awe and respect in the local population, which nevertheless depended on the peak for water, food, and other necessities of life. Organized worship of Mt. Haku is believed to have originated in the eighth century, when Buddhist ascetics began using the mountain as a training ground. These devotees would ascend to the summit and often spend extended periods of time on the slopes to instill themselves with spiritual discipline. 
 
In time, the ascetics’ beliefs spread to settlements on all sides of the mountain, where sanctuaries for worshiping the deities of the peak from afar were established. Such “Hakusan shrines” are most common throughout the nearby prefectures of Gifu, Ishikawa, and Fukui, but are also numerous particularly along the Sea of Japan coast, from Akita in the north to Fukuoka in the south. This distribution is likely due to the Hakusan faith having been disseminated by seafarers, for whom the peak was an important landmark that provided a sense of direction in what were often stormy and treacherous waters. 
 
In Shirakawa-go, worship of Hakusan has been a central element of local religious practice since at least medieval times. Two ancient trails are known to have led to the peak from this area, though most of the early Buddhist ascetics who worshiped the mountain ascended it from other directions. Hakusan shrines remain numerous throughout the Sho river valley.

この英文解説は、2021年観光庁「地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業」により整備しています。
This English description is provided by the "Multilingual Commentary Project 2020" of Japan Tourism Agency.

Hakusan National Park

Description

Hakusan National Park extends across the four prefectures of Gifu, Fukui, Toyama, and Ishikawa, centering on the 2,702-meter Mt. Haku (Hakusan). A dormant volcano that last erupted in 1659, the mountain has been an object of religious worship since distant antiquity and is considered one of the three great sacred peaks of Japan, along with Mt. Fuji and Mt. Tate (also Tateyama, in Toyama Prefecture). Mt. Haku can be climbed from the Shirakawa-go side of the park. The path to the peak is known as the Hirase Trail and starts from the Oshirakawa Dam, which can be reached by car throughout summer and in autumn until late October. The trail passes through a natural beech and oak forest and over the adjacent Mt. Okura on its way to the summit, which can be reached in about four hours. 
 
Next to the Oshirakawa Dam is the emerald-green Lake Hakusui, where visitors can take a break in one of the unmanned lakeside lodges or stay the night at the adjacent campsite. The landscape, which attracts admirers especially in early summer and during autumn foliage season in October, can also be viewed from the Oshirakawa open-air hot spring bath. A few minutes downhill along the road toward Shirakawa-go is Shiramizu Falls, where water plummets 72 meters down a cliff into the Oshira River. The falls were the main tourist attraction in Shirakawa-go before the area became famous for its traditional gassho-style farmhouses.

この英文解説は、2021年観光庁「地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業」により整備しています。
This English description is provided by the "Multilingual Commentary Project 2020" of Japan Tourism Agency.

Oshirakawa Open-air Bath

Description

Located in the Oshirakawa Nature Area of the Mt. Hakusan National Park, about 13 km from Hirase Hot Springs village along the Hakusan Park Line prefectural road, these natural hot spring baths allow bathers to enjoy nature to the fullest.

Visitor’s Guide

Lake Hakusui

Description

Lake Hakusui is located nearly 1,300 meters above sea level in Hakusan National Park, some 45 minutes by car from the historic village of Ogimachi. The lake was formed in 1963 by the building of the Oshirakawa Dam, which stands next to the parking lot serving as the entrance to this part of the national park. Lake Hakusui is famous for its emerald-green water, which gets its color from hot spring minerals released into the lake beneath the nearby Mt. Haku (Hakusan), a dormant volcano. In summer, visitors can observe the lake up close by renting a rowboat or stand-up paddleboard, or while soaking in the Oshirakawa open-air hot spring bath by the shore. Also nearby is a campsite where visitors can stay the night in a tent underneath the branches of beech and oak trees, some of which are hundreds of years old. The campsite is open from July to October, and its closing is usually followed closely by autumn, when the foliage of the surrounding hills begins to turn. In a typical year, the autumn foliage is at its best until late October. The road up to the lake is closed to traffic from the end of October to the end of May.

この英文解説は、2021年観光庁「地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業」により整備しています。
This English description is provided by the "Multilingual Commentary Project 2020" of Japan Tourism Agency.

Visitor’s Guide

Shiramizu Waterfall

Description

Shiramizu Falls is located in Hakusan National Park, just downstream from the emerald-green Lake Hakusui at the end of a road that leads up to the national park area from Shirakawa-go. The 72-meter falls were shaped by an eruption of Mt. Haku, when lava flowed down the slopes and hardened, forming steep cliffs along the Oshira River. Named for the somewhat cloudy, mineral-rich water plummeting into the river below, Shiramizu (“white water”) Falls was the main tourist attraction in Shirakawa-go before the area became famous for its traditional gassho-style farmhouses. A scenic lookout near the Shiramizu Falls parking lot provides the best views of the falls and the forested hills around it, which are bright with colorful foliage in autumn.

この英文解説は、2021年観光庁「地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業」により整備しています。
This English description is provided by the "Multilingual Commentary Project 2020" of Japan Tourism Agency.

Visitor’s Guide