Abukuma Caves

Abukuma Cave lies at Takine in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture. The cave runs for more than four kilometres in all, and about 600 metres of it is open as a walking route. It was found in the course of quarrying limestone, and the quarry face is still there: a wall of rock 140 metres high and 520 metres wide stands north of the car park. The cave is known less for its size than for the variety of what has grown in it.

The largest chamber on the public route, Takine Goten, is 29 metres high. Another, of about 13 metres, holds thick sheets of flowstone, tall stalagmites and stone grains stuck to the walls. Elsewhere there are stalactites shaped like mushrooms, a curtain of stone thin enough for light to pass through and show the pattern within it, and a waterfall of stone.

The rarest is a cave shield, a formation with a disc at the top that occurs in few caves anywhere. The one here is larger than any other in Japan.

The route ends in a chamber called the moon world, where the main kinds of formation can all be seen together. The lighting changes colour slowly through it, running from darkness to sunrise and on to sunset. It was the first cave in Japan to be lit with a stage lighting system of this kind.

Besides the walking route there is a rougher one, which branches off it and rejoins it at the great chamber. It is entered beside a pool of groundwater, and involves stooping through narrow places and crossing log ladders and stepping stones, with low ceilings and poor footing along the way.