Harajiri Falls, Waterfall in Bungoōno, Japan

Harajiri Falls is a waterfall on the Ogata River, a tributary of the Ōno River, in Bungoōno, Oita Prefecture, Japan. It is 120 meters wide and 20 meters high, dropping over a cliff of Aso-4 welded tuff in several separate white streams. The dark grey and brown rock face is broken into vertical sections with columnar joints, and green vegetation grows on the ledges between them.

The cliff formed 90,000 years ago when volcanic flows from Mount Aso shaped the rock and left it to cool slowly. Later erosion by the river exposed the edge as it is today, creating the drop seen now.

The waterfall is a stop on the Top-100 Waterfalls of Japan list drawn up by the Environment Ministry in 1990. A statue of the Buddhist deity Fudō Myōō, shown with a sword in the right hand and a rope in the left, stands at the falls. In the off-season about 500,000 tulips are planted in the surrounding fields, and the Ogata Tulip Festival is held there in April.

Parking is available near the viewing point, and visitors reach the site within a few minutes on foot from the parking area. Toilets and bicycle rental are available, and the waterfall lies roughly seven minutes by car from JR Ogata Station.

The cliff is made of Aso-4 welded tuff, not basalt: columnar joints in the rock face are the cooled, hardened remains of pyroclastic flows from Mount Aso's eruption about 90,000 years ago. The river undercut the columns one by one, and the falls retreat upstream as this erosion continues. A statue of the Buddhist deity Fudō Myōō stands by the falls.