Befukyo Gorge

Befukyo is at the head of the Monobe river in the Tsurugi quasi-national park, an hour and twenty minutes into the mountains from the nearest expressway exit, and in November the whole slope turns at once. It is the best-known autumn gorge in Kochi and it is a long way from anything — the drive up the Monobe valley from Tosa-Yamada is the reason most people only do it once a year.

There are walking paths along the river, a suspension bridge, and clear green water at the bottom of a steep V. Two hundred free parking spaces at the entrance tell you what a November weekend looks like; the rest of the year the valley is essentially empty. The Monobe area is also the home of Izanagi-ryu, a surviving folk religious tradition of ritual specialists that exists nowhere else in Japan.