The Fukiware Waterfall in Tone-machi, Numata City, Gunma Prefecture is one of Japan’s most distinctively shaped waterfalls. It is designated as a national Natural Monument. It is a U-shaped waterfall with a height of 7 m and a width of 30 m. Visitors can come very close to the top of waterfall and look down into its basin. Being called “the Niagara Falls of the East,” the water dynamically flows down into the basin with splashes of water and roaring sounds. As its name “Fuki (blow)-ware (split)” represents, it looks like if it had split a huge rock in two.

The legend has it that the waterfall basin leads to the Dragon Palace. When villagers wrote the number of bowls and plates needed for a cerebration banquet on a piece of paper and threw it into the waterfall, the dragon god prepared the food vessels in necessary number and placed them on the rock beside the waterfall in the next morning. However, one villager once miscounted the number and forgot to return one of the bowls. Since then the dragon god stopped lending food vessels to the villagers. The bowl is called “the Dragon Palace Bowl” and has been treasured now.