Mase River and Sanjūgama Gorge

The Mase River cuts down from the Shirakami Sanchi mountains and carves a narrow gorge full of twists and rock formations before reaching the Sea of Japan near Happo. The gorge takes its name from a logging accident: woodcutters once bundled cut logs into stacked groups called kama and floated them downstream, but one day workers found that 30 of these bundles had been smashed or stopped by boulders along this stretch. They named it Sanjugama, meaning 30 pots, for the lost wood. Today the gorge is valued for its wild scenery and the steep forested slopes above the river.