is a set of waterfalls near the downtown Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, with an important significance in Japanese literature

Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...

 and Japanese art

Japanese art

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...

. In Japan, Nunobiki is considered one of the greatest "divine falls" together with Kegon Falls

Kegon Falls

are located at Lake Chūzenji in Nikkō National Park near the city of Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The falls were formed when the Daiya River was rerouted by lava flows...

 and Nachi Falls.

Nunobiki waterfalls comprises four separate falls: Ondaki, Mendaki, Tsusumigadaki, and Meotodaki.

A well-known section of the Tales of Ise

The Tales of Ise

is a Japanese collection of tanka poems and associated narratives, dating from the Heian period. The current version collects 125 sections, with each combining poems and prose, giving a total of 209 poems in most versions....

describes a trip taken by a minor official and his guests to Nunobiki Falls. They begin a poetry-writing contest, to which one of the guests, a commander of the guards, contributes:

Which, I wonder, is higher-

This waterfall or the fall of my tears

As I wait in vain,

Hoping today or tomorrow

To rise in the world.

The minor official offers his own composition:

It looks as though someone

Must be unstringing

Those clear cascading gems.

Alas! My sleeves are too narrow

To hold them all.

External links

• Tale: Sarasvati
  Benzaiten
  Benzaiten is the Japanese name for the Hindu goddess Saraswati. Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the 6th through 8th centuries, mainly via the Chinese translations of the Sutra of Golden Light, which has a section devoted to her...
  
   of Nunobiki Waterfall http://www.city.kobe.jp/cityoffice/83/gaikoku/en/katari/kata04.html @ Kobe city
  Kobe
  , pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
  
  
• Tale: Ariwara-no-Yukihira
  Ariwara no Yukihira
  was a Japanese Heian period courtier and bureaucrat, who held a number of positions over the course of his life. At one time or another, he was governor of the provinces of Harima, Bizen, Shinano, and Bitchū. He also served as , , and inspector of Mutsu and Dewa provinces.Yukihira was also a poet,...
  
  , Ariwara-no-Narihira
  Ariwara no Narihira
  was a Japanese waka poet and aristocrat. He was one of six waka poets referred in the preface in kana to Kokin Wakashū by Ki no Tsurayuki, and has been named as the hero of The Tales of Ise, whose hero was an anonym in itself but most of whose love affairs could be attributed to Narihira.He was the...
  
   and Nunobiki Waterfall http://www.city.kobe.jp/cityoffice/83/gaikoku/en/katari/kata07.html @ Kobe city
• Tale: En-no-Gyoja
  En no Gyoja
  En no Gyōja , or En no Ozunu , born 634, was a Japanese ascetic and mystic, traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendō, a syncretic religion incorporating aspects of Taoism, Shinto, esoteric Buddhism and traditional Japanese shamanism...
  
  and Nunobiki Waterfall http://www.city.kobe.jp/cityoffice/83/gaikoku/en/katari/kata10.html @ Kobe city
• Tale: Mysterious Palace at the Bottom of the Waterfall Basin http://www.city.kobe.jp/cityoffice/83/gaikoku/en/katari/kata11.html @ Kobe city