Japan Waterfall

Manai Falls

A 17 m drop.

When to go

Hiroaki Kaneko · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

17m

Height

29m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun–Sep

Best months

4.9MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Manai Falls, month by month

It roars from June to July.

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

9.2 m³/sJan
13 m³/sFeb
18 m³/sMar
21 m³/sApr
24 m³/sMay
53 m³/sJun
60 m³/sJul
39 m³/sAug
31 m³/sSep
19 m³/sOct
14 m³/sNov
11 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 9.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 60 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 Miyazaki prefecture, Japan

Manai Falls is a waterfall in Japan. The water falls 17 m.

Getting there.

Mitainearest town · 0.1 km in a straight line
Parking 500 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Kumamoto Airport (KMJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 44 km in a straight lineCar hire at KOJ airport (Kagoshima)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From June to Septemberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at KOJ airport (Kagoshima)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.

4.9 MW

About 29 m³/s falling 17 m: the power of the water as it drops.

as much as 1.6 large wind turbines
enough to power about 1,200 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.

The 五ヶ瀬川 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 61 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 117 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

7viewpoints高千穂峡, 高千穂あまてらす鉄道 and 5 more
—waymarked walking routes
46car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
17toilets
16information boards and visitor centres
3bus stops within 1 km
1other named waterfalls within 4 km天孫降臨の滝
—caves
2campsites国見ヶ丘, 仲山城跡キャンプ場 / Nakayamajoseki Camping Ground
13hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel Grateful Takachiho, ホテル四季見, Hotel Chikimi and 10 more
28restaurants 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

Mitai0.1 km in a straight line
Sankasho8.9 km in a straight line
Hinokage11 km in a straight line
Tsukabaru21 km in a straight line
Takamori21 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	9	11	15	20	24	27	31	31	28	23	17	11
Night °C	0	1	4	8	14	18	22	23	19	13	7	2
Rain & snow (mm)	72	114	141	169	207	469	421	217	236	125	105	89
Wet days	8	9	12	12	12	19	19	19	15	9	9	8
Sun h/day	4.9	4.9	5.6	5.9	5.5	3.0	5.1	6.0	4.8	5.2	4.8	4.7
Snow on the ground (cm)	4	2	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 (236 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Manai Falls at Takachiho Gorge — The Modern Polymath · CC BY-SA 4.0

Manai Waterfall 真名井の滝(まないのたき) (3427918641) — TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋) from Japan · CC BY 2.0

Manai Waterfall 真名井の滝(まないのたき) (3430044721) — TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋) from Japan · CC BY 2.0

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	148%	128%	93%	52%	135%	118%	220%	49%	164%	72%	89%	59%
2021	61%	83%	101%	78%	262%	50%	58%	458%	85%	30%	117%	44%
2022	86%	28%	126%	166%	73%	74%	105%	100%	172%	45%	73%	55%
2023	130%	94%	105%	148%	165%	145%	113%	154%	34%	55%	59%	100%
2024	41%	178%	205%	141%	150%	126%	94%	140%	75%	183%	159%	13%
2025	45%	56%	113%	80%	233%	107%	48%	238%	125%	80%	46%	74%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Manai Falls

Japan

17 mHeight
29 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

Harajiri Falls

Japan

20 mHeight
6.8 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

Sgaru Falls

Japan

60 mHeight
13 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

Gorō Falls

Japan

—Height
1.6 m³/sAverage flow
Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q62534116) · 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.