Naena Falls

Naena Falls in Niigata was born about 30,000 years ago when a volcanic eruption dammed the Seki River, forming a lake that eventually spilled westward over a natural edge. The name drifted from nawi, an old Japanese word for earthquake, referring to the sound of water crashing 55 meters below. A large boulder once split the falls into two streams until 1814, when years of log-floating finally broke it apart. Haiku poet Kobayashi Issa visited in 1813 and composed a poem about the waterfall, now inscribed on a monument near the suspension bridge at the trailhead.