The Tarumi Railway runs a single track northward through Motosu, threading past persimmon orchards and rice paddies before the valley closes in around it. This is Gifu's interior, where the Neodani Fault broke the surface in the 1891 Nobi Earthquake, and where a facility built underground lets visitors stand face-to-face with the exposed fault plane itself — a geological encounter that is, by any measure, rare. The Jishin Dansō Kanshokan opened in 1992 and the crack in the earth it preserves has not softened with time.
Further up the valley, the Usuzumi Zakura stands in Usuzumi Park, a single tree of the Edo-higan variety with roots reaching back more than fifteen centuries. The name refers to the pale ink-wash color the petals take on as they fall — a quality documented in the Sakura Shiryōkan nearby, which holds records of the tree's recovery efforts alongside materials related to the writer Uno Chiyo. In spring the tree draws crowds, but the valley around it belongs to the Neodani River year-round, the same water that hosts the Neodani River fireworks and runs cold enough to sustain ayu, the sweetfish that appears on local tables.
The older cultural layers surface in the Makuwa Ningyo Joruri, a puppet theater tradition kept alive in the area, and in Nōgō no Nō to Kyōgen, classical performing arts associated with the mountain community near Nōgō Hakusan. Fuyū persimmon — the local cultivar — is grown on the lower plains where the river fans out and the soil deepens. These things coexist without ceremony: fault lines, ancient trees, sweetfish, persimmons, a train that runs on a single track.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
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What converges here
2 in this city. 43 within 25 km of the city hall.
See the nearest 25
- Gifu City Science Museum
- Nawa Insect Museum
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu
- Eizō & Tōichi Katō Memorial Art Museum
- Gifu Prefectural Archives
- Sankō Museum
- 日本国際ポスター美術館
- Sunomata Local History Museum
- Hara Sankei Memorial Room
- OKBギャラリー
- Ginan-chō Folk Historical Museum
- Ōgaki Castle
- Kasamatsu Museum History and Future
- ハートピア安八
- Gifu Prefectural Museum
- 各務原市埋蔵文化財調査センター
- Museum of History and Folklore
- Fuji Takehana Machiya Gallery
- Takehana Matsuri Dashi Hall
- 各務原市木曽川文化史料館
- Ogakishi Wajukan
- Enkū Museum
- Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum
- Ichinomiya City Memorial Art Museum of Setsuko Migishi
- Ichinomiya Bisai Museum of History and Folklore
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Neodani Kikka-seki (Chrysanthemum Stones of Neo Valley)
- Neo Valley Fault
- Neodani Usuzumi Cherry Tree
- Ibi-Sekigahara-Yoro
- Mount Nogo-Hakusan
- Kitagata-Masaka
- Morera Gifu
- Motosu
- Tarumi
- Itonuki
- Kochihara
- Konoumi
- Oribe
- Mizudori
- Hiatari
- Nabehara
- Takao