Yoshino River


The Yoshino River is a river on the island of Shikoku, Japan. It is long and has a watershed of. It is the second longest river in Shikoku, and is the only river whose watershed spreads over the four prefectures of the island.
It is regarded as one of the three greatest rivers of Japan along with the Tone and the Chikugo, and is nicknamed Shikoku Saburō.
The Yoshino rises from Mount Kamegamori in Ino, Kōchi Prefecture and flows to the east. In Ōtoyo it turns to the north and crosses the Shikoku Mountains. The gorge, named Ōboke Koboke, is a famous tourist attraction of Shikoku. In Ikeda, Tokushima Prefecture it turns to the east again and pours into the Kii Channel at the north of Tokushima city. Its major tributaries include Ananai, Iya, Dōzan, Sadamitsu, and Anabuki.
The river has some "submerged bridges", equivalents of Chinkabashi of the Shimanto, which lack parapets in order not to be washed away by floods. Reconstruction of the Yoshino Daiju Dam near its mouth provoked much controversy among environmentalists.