飛騨大鍾乳洞

Hida dai-shonyudo - Hida Large Limestone Cave


Useful Information

Location: Between Takayama and Hirayu.
(36.183816, 137.424808)
Open: APR to OCT daily 8-17:30, last entry 17.
NOV to MAR daily 9-16:30, last entry 16.
[2020]
Fee: Adults JPY 1,100, Children (6-14) JPY 550, Children free.
Groups (20+): Adults JPY 900, Children (6-14) JPY 350.
[2020]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System LightColoured Light
Dimension: A=900 m asl., L=800 m, T=12 °C.
Guided tours: self guided, 10 min per section, 30 min full cave.
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography: Herbert Kalteis (1997): Hida Dai Shonyudo. Die große Hida Tropfsteinhöhle Präfektur Gifu, Honshu, Japan in: HKM Wien und NÖ 1997, Heft 11/12, S. 222ff. Deutsch - German
Address: Hida Great Limestone Cave - 飛騨大鍾乳洞, 1147 Nyukawacho Hiyomo, Takayama, Gifu 506-2256, Tel: +81-577-79-2211, Fax: +81-577-79-2643.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1965 discovered.
1968 opened to the public.

Description

飛騨大鍾乳洞 (Hida dai-shonyudo, Hida Great Limestone Cave) is the highest show cave of Japan, located 900 m above sea level. It is famous for its huge amount of helictites. This cave is extremely user-friendly, as it has actually three exits, so whenever you are overwhelmed or annoyed by the tour you can take the next exit and leave. We have no idea if the cave is actually that worse, we guess everybody should be able to make the 30 minutes. The pictures of the cave look great, except for the coloured light that is.

The cave is located between Hida-Takayama and the Okuhida Hot Spring Village. Mostly it is called Hida Dai Shonyudo, but sometimes it is also called Okuhida Dai Shonyudo, for non-Japanese visitors quite difficult. The actual name of the cave, if you strip the town name away, is 大鍾乳洞 (Dai shōnyūdō, Great Limestone Cave) and actually not a name at all. Like Bat Cave or River Cave this name exists in abundance, actually there is as second show cave in the prefecture with that name, so we understand why they added to location.

The cave visit is completed by a museum, which shows some 1000 pieces of art and craft from all over the world. It also contains minerals and fossils. They were collected by Sotokichi Ohashi, who also discovered the cave. This collection became notorious in 2007, because a huge 100 kg gold nugget was stolen. The thief was soon found and the gold returned, but unfortunately he had already started to cut the nugget into pieces and melt them into bullion. So the exhibition shows the returned pieces and the bullion. The problem is, that gold nuggets have a collector value which is much higher than the actual gold value. So while the gold was returned, the loss is huge. The visit to the museum is included in the cave entrance fee.