Japan Waterfall

Harajiri Falls

A 20 m drop.

When to go

大分帰省中 · CC BY 3.0

In numbers.

20m

Height

6.8m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun–Sep

Best months

1.3MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Harajiri Falls, month by month

It roars from June to July.

The fullest months: from June to July. The thinnest: from December to February.

2.2 m³/sJan
3.1 m³/sFeb
4.4 m³/sMar
5.2 m³/sApr
5.8 m³/sMay
12 m³/sJun
14 m³/sJul
9.7 m³/sAug
7.9 m³/sSep
5.1 m³/sOct
3.7 m³/sNov
2.8 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 2.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 14 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.

Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in Ōita Prefecture, Japan

Harajiri Falls is a waterfall in Japan. The water falls 20 m over a front 120 m wide.

Getting there.

Takedamachinearest town · 4.8 km in a straight line
Parking 250 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Kumamoto Airport (KMJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 57 km in a straight lineCar hire at FUK airport (Fukuoka)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From June to Septemberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at FUK airport (Fukuoka)Discover CarsSee

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

1.3 MW

About 6.8 m³/s falling 20 m: the power of the water as it drops.

enough to power about 334 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Harajiri Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2)

N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The 緒方川 through the falls

The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 19 m in 2.1 km. Here the river runs about 69 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

1viewpoints原尻の滝
1waymarked walking routes
3car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
2toilets
—information boards and visitor centres
—bus stops within 1 km
—other named waterfalls within 4 km
—caves
2campsites竹田市野外活動施設そうぞうの丘, 辻河原公園
—hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
—restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

Takedamachi4.8 km in a straight line
Bungo-ōno7.3 km in a straight line
Taketa7.8 km in a straight line
Mie12 km in a straight line
Ubuyama20 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon °C	8	10	14	20	24	27	31	31	28	22	16	10
Night °C	0	1	4	9	14	19	23	23	20	13	7	2
Rain & snow (mm)	69	101	129	156	186	398	396	216	226	125	96	79
Wet days	9	9	12	12	12	18	19	19	15	9	9	9
Sun h/day	3.7	4.4	5.5	6.0	6.1	4.0	5.0	6.4	5.0	5.2	4.5	3.6
Snow on the ground (cm)	6	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (172 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Harajiri Falls 2025 — KUPS39M · CC BY-SA 4.0

Harajiri Waterfall 10 — そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

Harajiri Waterfall 1 — そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

Recent years

Wet years and dry years

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	173%	122%	101%	55%	121%	115%	212%	42%	148%	78%	72%	68%
2021	71%	100%	103%	80%	224%	50%	58%	434%	75%	32%	110%	38%
2022	80%	29%	120%	126%	67%	68%	92%	127%	157%	43%	55%	47%
2023	126%	86%	107%	150%	195%	150%	144%	125%	37%	32%	53%	74%
2024	59%	184%	192%	149%	138%	113%	89%	136%	84%	186%	202%	16%
2025	38%	53%	119%	72%	218%	117%	44%	246%	116%	85%	36%	72%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Harajiri Falls

Japan

20 mHeight
6.8 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

Chinda Falls

Japan

—Height
41 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

Manai Falls

Japan

17 mHeight
29 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

Shindō Falls

Japan

83 mHeight
2.1 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q3127241) · CC0
River flow and catchment	HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
Climate	NASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.