Uriwari Falls: Pure Water, Shared for Over a Thousand Years

Uriwari Falls flows quietly in Wakasa

Hidden deep within a cedar forest, along moss-covered paths dotted with small temples, shrines, and weathered stone, Uriwari Falls flows quietly in Wakasa—a rural town in southern Fukui whose landscape reveals a history far older than it first appears.

For more than 1,300 years, people have come to Uriwari Falls for one essential reason: water. Long before it became a place to visit, this spring was already an ancient source of clean drinking water for surrounding villages. Historical records suggest that water from Uriwari was carried home daily for drinking, cooking, tea preparation, and ritual use. Its stable flow and exceptional clarity made it especially valued, turning the act of collecting water into a quiet rhythm of everyday life rather than a special event. Even today, locals arrive with large containers, repeating gestures that have changed little over generations.

Why the Water Is So Pure?

Here, rainwater seeps deep into ancient limestone beneath the forest floor, slowly filtered over decades before returning to the surface as crystal-clear spring water. Even in the height of summer, it remains startlingly cold—so cold, in fact, that local legend says it could once split a melon, giving the falls their poetic name: Uriwari, or “melon-splitting.”