Shasui Falls, Waterfall in Yamakita, Japan

Shasui Falls drops in three stages on the Takizawa River: the upper fall is 69 m, the middle 16 m and the lower 29 m. In the photograph a narrow white stream falls down a dark, layered rock face into a stone basin partly hidden by a red arched bridge, with dense green foliage crowding both banks.

The falls appear as "Snake Water Falls" (蛇水の滝) in the Shin-Sagamikuni Fudoki of 1841, though they were known since at least the late Heian period. In the early Kamakura period the monk Mongaku is said to have spent a hundred days of austerities under the water. Saishō-ji temple keeps a Fudō Myōō image called the "Waterfall Fudō", attributed to him.

The name Shasui comes from esoteric Buddhist vocabulary meaning water that purifies the body. Practitioners still stand beneath the fall for takigyō austerities, letting the water strike the head and upper body. Every year on the fourth Sunday of July the Shasui Falls Festival brings water austerities, a fire rite in the Jōjitsubō precinct and Shasui drumming.

From JR Yamakita Station on the Gotemba Line, take the Yamakita loop bus (western or southern route) and get off at Hirayama, then walk about ten minutes. By car, head south from the Higuchi Bridge intersection on Route 246 onto Prefectural Road 726. A 226-step walkway and an observation deck 40 m above ground reopened on 8 April 2022.

The name Shasui comes from esoteric Buddhism, where it means water for purifying the body, not sake water. The falls and the Takizawa river were chosen for the 1985 selection of Japan's 100 finest waters, and the falls also appear on the 100 best waterfalls list.