Shiramizu Falls

Standing 72 meters tall in Hakusan National Park, Shiramizu Falls was formed around 2,200 years ago when Mt. Haku lava hardened above the Oshira River, creating steep cliffs. The primeval forest around the falls includes giant beeches, oaks, katsura trees, and Japanese horse-chestnut. The falls lie on the main pilgrimage trail to the summit of Mt. Haku, and Buddhist ascetics using this route from at least the eighth century considered the area a spiritual threshold between the sacred peak and the mortal world. Medieval devotional mandalas depicting the mountain consistently placed the falls at this symbolic boundary. Bronze mirrors from the medieval period were found near the falls during dam construction in 1963.