The Mighty Gonokawa

A spectacular river for all seasons

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The Gonokawa from the Iwami Winery Hotel Misato

The Gonokawa (江の川) is the major waterway in the Chugoku region of Japan (all of Honshu west of Hyogo prefecture). It and its tributaries drain much of inland Hiroshima prefecture by passing through a dramatic gorge mostly in Shimane prefecture and ending up in the Japan Sea at Gotsu. The gorge makes for spectacular views such as the one above and there are numerous points of interest in both the Shimane and Hiroshima parts. According to the official Japanese government website the river is 194 km long (about 120 miles) and it forms a kind of crescent.

Map stolen borrowed from wikipedia

Access to Miyoshi (in Hiroshima) and Gotsu (in Shimane) is possible by rail but apart from those places you’ll need to investigate the various rural bus services, rent a car (my strong recommendation) or, for the fitter sorts, a bicycle. The rail line (芸備線, Geibi-sen) from Hiroshima to Miyoshi and then Nimi in Okayama goes along the river for a while and is very pretty. If you decide to limit yourself to trains then this is the recommended way to experience the area. There are highway buses that will drop you at Chiyoda and Oasa on the Hamada highway as well as Miyoshi and others that go to Gotsu and Kawamoto and probably other places, but all these are fairly infrequent and figuring out routes is an exercise in frustration in my experience.

Until a few years ago there was a train line (the Sanko-sen 三江線) running up the gorge from Gotsu to Miyoshi but this closed because of a lack of users and was replaced with an infrequent bus service. However most of the track, including some spectacular bridges and the stations are still visible. One of these old stations - Uzui - has sort of turned itself into a visitor spot because it used to be have highest platform accessible only by steps in Japan.

Uzui station. You can climb all 100+ steps up to the platform

In addition to the beautiful natural scenery on the river itself there are various other natural attractions nearby such as waterfalls and gorges like the Dangyokei as well as mountains that provide great views such as Mt Sanbe (an extinct volcano). Driving or cycling the area so that you can go up to sites just off the main river is a great idea, but even just taking the local buses along the riverside is worth it for the scenery.

Mt Sanbe seen from the Gonokawa in winter

There are some pretty man-made things too. The Haji dam near Chiyoda is impressive and the lake behind it is famous for its cherry trees. There are a number of interesting bridges as well and if you get excited by tunnels there are a few of them too including the Hiwa tunnel which is the longest tunnel on a non national/prefectural road (yes kind of esoteric :) ).

There’s also a fair degree of history. The Iwami Ginzan silver mine, which will be the subject of another post, is close and at various points the old Iwami Ginzan Kaido that was used to take silver to other places in Japan passes by the riverside. In the upper reaches there’s also Koriyama castle ruins (Japanese Website) and various other things to do with the Mori clan that dominated the region under the leadership of Mori Motonari just prior to the Tokugawa shogunate. Koriyama castle is an excellent example of a Japanese castle designed for war as opposed to the ones built (or extended) after the Tokugawa shogunate imposed peace on the country such as Himeji, Matsue or (the rebuilt) Hiroshima castles. There are numerous other minor castle/fortress sites on the hills around the river thanks to the wars between the various Japanese clans prior to the Edo era and some have paths up that you can follow, though you should be aware that many of these paths are overgrown. In Miyoshi there’s one right by the river though that is a park (Ozekiyama) and easy to walk around. Doing a search in your mapping app of choice for 山城跡, 山城 or 城跡 will show quite a few of them if you want to try walking up.

In terms of culture, there are various festivals (matsuri) such as the Jinohi Matsuri (次の日祭) that takes place in Onancho in the middle of May and the various local tourist agencies tend to have details of these.

Jinohi Matsuri (outside the Iketsuki sake brewery in Onan town)

However the real and almost unique cultural activity of the region is Iwami Kagura (石見神楽). Iwami Kagura is kind of the drunken uncle of Kabuki, which is derived from Izumo Kagura. Izumo Kagura is sedate (to be polite), Iwami Kagura is a lot more fast paced and frequently features firecrackers, dry ice and other things that are not what you migth expect from a traditional cultural activity. I need to do a separate post about Kagura (update: that post has been written), but if you visit the Gonokawa region try and find a kagura performance to see while you are there.

An open air afternoon kagura performance

I think kagura is best seen while drinking sake, and ideally in a shrine, but there are plenty of kagura performances in other places and plenty where you probably won’t be drinking, unless you like day drinking. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, just watch it if you can.

The region doesn’t really have anything specifically local in terms of food but on the Hiroshima side there are plenty of Hiroshima style okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) places and if you are lucky you can find locally caught river fish such as ayu or yamame. Miyoshi is famous as a place where they use cormorants (Ukai 鵜飼) to catch ayu and other fish. There are boat tours you can take to watch while they fish this way.

Miyoshi Ukai dock.

Often these river fish are served as one dish in a series at a ryokan and as a snack on a stick at events and festivals.

Yamame fish for sale at a festival in Chiyoda, Kitahiroshima

If you like booze there are various sake breweries in the area and a couple of micro-breweries as well. There are also onsens (hot spring baths) and while the region isn’t packed with hotels there are quite a few places to stay at various levels of budget. Even the most expensive, such as some of the ryokans or the Iwami Winery Hotel, are good on the value for money front. Miyoshi has two or three chain hotels and makes for a good base to tour the rest of the river.

When to visit? Any time works. The river and surrounding countryside is beautiful all year around, except when it is a raging torrent after a typhoon or heavy early summer rain storm - the first week in July is when the river has flooded in three recent years.

In winter the snow makes the river a contrast in blues and whites

In spring the series of flowering trees etc. starting with plum from around late February followed cherry in late March/early April and then peach and wisteria means there’s always somewhere where there’s some spectacular blossom for months.

In summer there are cool shady roads along the gorge and you can go canoeing in the river.

In the fall the changing leaves, particularly the yellow gingko and red maple, are often staggeringly beautiful.

Saikyoji (西教寺) Oasa, Kitahiroshima (near the soruce of the Gonokawa)

Really anytime works. So go visit!

PS All photos © Francis Turner