Iya Valley
The Iya Kazurabashi Is A National Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property · Miyoshi, Tokushima
One of the most remote valleys in Japan, in the mountains of western Tokushima on the island of Shikoku, where the Iya river has cut deep, forested gorges. For centuries it was so isolated that it was said to be a hiding place for the defeated Heike clan after their war with the Minamoto in the twelfth century. Its best-known sights are the kazurabashi, bridges woven from wisteria vines and rebuilt every few years, which sway above the river; the Iya Kazurabashi and the more remote pair of Oku-Iya Kazurabashi, the husband and wife bridges, can be crossed on foot. Thatched farmhouses cling to steep slopes in villages such as Ochiai, and the statue of a peeing boy stands on a rock above a sheer drop, where local boys once proved their courage. The nearby Oboke and Koboke gorges have sightseeing boats and white-water rafting. Mount Tsurugi, Shikoku's second-highest peak, has a chairlift. A few renovated farmhouses are rented to visitors. Buses are sparse; a car is best.
Kazurabashi, Nishiiyayama-son Zentoku, Miyoshi, Tokushima, 778-0102, Japan
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the vine bridges are open in the daytime, roughly from sunrise to sunset, and the Iya Kazurabashi has been lit on some evenings. The Oboke boats run in daytime and stop in high water. Rafting runs from spring to autumn. The Mount Tsurugi lift runs only in the warmer months. Buses are infrequent and last ones leave early. Winter snow closes some upper roads. Confirm current times, bridge rebuilds and road closures before relying on them.