Kiyotsu Gorge

Kiyotsu is a gorge of columnar joints - hexagonal rock columns formed as a body of quartz diorite porphyrite cooled underground - and the walls are impressive but the path along the river was closed after a fatal rockfall in 1988. What replaced it, in 1996, is a 750-metre pedestrian tunnel driven through the rock, with three viewpoints looking out at the walls and a panorama station at the end. In 2018, for the Echigo-Tsumari art triennale, the tunnel was reworked by the practice MAD Architects as a piece called Tunnel of Light: coloured lighting through the passage, a mirrored washroom in the middle, and at the end a chamber whose floor is a shallow sheet of water flanked by polished steel, so the gorge framed by the opening appears complete and inverted in the pool. That last chamber is the image that circulates. It is a short walk, mostly flat, and the tunnel is cold.

What's there

• Columnar walls - hexagonal columnar jointing on both sides of the gorge.
• A 750-metre tunnel - a pedestrian tunnel of 1996 with three viewpoints and a panorama station at the end.
• The mirror chamber - a water floor and steel walls inverting the gorge at the end.
• An art commission - reworked in 2018 for the Echigo-Tsumari triennale.

When to go

Late October for colour in the frame; April to November otherwise. Two hours.

Good to know

The mirror chamber queues for photographs and the water is a few centimetres deep - boots or bare feet. The tunnel is cold in every season. Timed entry applies in busy periods. The gorge itself cannot be walked - the tunnel is the only access.

Nearby

Hoshitoge terraces are north-west; Echigo-Yuzawa is south.

Key facts