長瀞赤壁

About this photo

This photo shows the Chichibu Sekiheki (Chichibu Red Cliffs), a wall of rock rising from the bank of the Arakawa River in Nagatoro, Saitama Prefecture. It appears in Nihon Meisho Fuzoku Dai Shashincho (Great Photo Album of Japan's Famous Places and Customs), published in 1931 (Showa 6).

Nagatoro is a gorge that the Arakawa River carved through the Chichibu mountains. Along the water spreads the Iwadatami, or "rock tatami," a stretch of flat rock, and on the opposite bank a rock wall several dozen meters high runs along the river. The name Sekiheki comes from the Red Cliffs on the Yangtze River in China, famous from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Sanbagawa metamorphic rock is well exposed here. Researchers have been coming since the early Meiji era, and the place is also called the birthplace of Japanese geology.

In 1924 (Taisho 13) it was designated a Place of Scenic Beauty and a Natural Monument under the name Nagatoro. It is still one of Chichibu's best-known scenic spots, famous for the Iwadatami and its river boat rides.

Glossary