At Tachikuekyo the rock turns before your eyes have adjusted to it. The colour comes early for a gorge — late October to mid-November — and that is the first thing worth knowing about the place. For roughly two kilometres along the Kando river, stone pillars and cliffs stand on both banks: Tengu-iwa, Byobu-iwa, Rosoku-iwa, Eboshi-iwa, each named for what it resembles.

Trees have taken hold in the seams and on the ledges, so when they turn, the grey columns are edged in red rather than hidden by it. The effect depends on where you stand. Walk the riverside path and the order of the pillars keeps shifting, the picture recomposing itself every few steps.

The gorge changes through the year — mountain cherry in spring, dense green in summer, snow in winter — but only in this one month do the rock and the colour sit in the same frame. It is also unusually close to a city for a place that looks like this, about twenty minutes by car from central Izumo, which makes it an easy half day rather than an expedition.

Buses run from Izumoshi station on the Sanin main line and take thirty minutes; get off at Tachikuekyo. There is no admission charge. Come on a weekday morning if you can, when the light reaches down into the gorge and the path is quiet. The pillars have been standing a long time. They can wait for good light. So can you.