Guidebooks describe Okutama's defining quality as an atmosphere of deep mountain seclusion and hushed valley scenery, an experience they liken to the neighbouring Okuchichibu highlands. According to the 1961 guidebook, the Okutama mountain region in western Tokyo centres on the Tama River watershed and takes in the Nippara, Kosuge, and Akigawa river basins in the country west of Ome and Itsukaichi. According to the 1961 guidebook, the Okutama area was taken into Chichibu-Tama National Park—Japan's sixteenth national park—on 10 July 1950. The Okutama massif, according to the 1961 guidebook, is built entirely of eroded sedimentary rock and holds no volcanic formations, an unusual geological character for a mountain area of this scale in Japan.
The town at the confluence
According to the 1961 guidebook, Okutama Town—formerly called Hikawa—stands where the long Stone Ridge trail descends to the confluence of the Tama and Nippara Rivers, which gives the town its role as the practical and geographic hub of the area. Guidebooks describe the stretches of the Tama River valley closest to the entry points as having become accessible day-trip destinations. According to the 1961 guidebook, a metamorphic rock formation called Byobuiwa (Screen Rock), visible from around the town, rises in three distinct peaks with near-vertical walls and stands among the striking rock features of the Okutama area.
A slow passage through the water-source forest
According to the 1961 guidebook, the ridges and valleys of the Okutama watershed are managed as Tokyo's municipal water-source forest, and nearly all of the area's hiking trails follow the forest-management roads laid through these protected woodlands, so a slow passage through the cedars is at the same time a passage through Tokyo's water infrastructure. According to the 1961 guidebook, the historic Ome Highway follows the Yanagisawa River toward the Tama River and then continues alongside the main river through the mountain valley, one of the oldest routes threading the Okutama gorge landscape.
Along the Tanba River
According to the 1961 guidebook, upstream of Okutama Town the Tama River is locally called the Tanba River, where the ravine cuts so deeply that its scenery is hard to take in from the roadside alone, though the gorge has been celebrated for generations for its spring greenery and autumn colour. A deep pool on the Tanba River is said to be known as Ushikinbuchi (Golden-Ox Pool), named for a legend that part of the Takeda clan's war treasury—cast in the form of a golden ox—was submerged there. A pool where the Yanagisawa River joins the Tama and Tanba river system is said to be called Oiranbuchi (Courtesan's Pool), a spot whose once-celebrated romantic atmosphere guidebooks describe as having largely faded after road widening reshaped the surrounding scenery.
Along the Nippara River
According to the 1961 guidebook, the Nippara River is portrayed as a strikingly rugged and dramatic stream in the Okutama region east of Kumotoriyama, with high gorge walls, cascades, and deep tributary valleys along its course from the mountain slopes down to its junction with the Tama River at the town. Guidebooks describe the upper valleys of the Nippara and Tanba Rivers as dense primary forest that casts deep shade within the gorges. According to local accounts, the Nippara Limestone Cave (日原鐘乳洞), near the point where the Kogawa valley meets the Nippara River, is said to have been discovered by the Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi.
The high sources of the Tama
According to the 1961 guidebook, Kumotoriyama, at 2,017.7 metres the highest summit in Tokyo Prefecture, carries a first-order triangulation point and gives broad panoramic views. According to the 1961 guidebook, the Tama River rises at about 1,860 metres on the southern face of Kasatoriyama, at a spring called Mizuhi, where a small stone sanctuary to the water deity has stood since it was consecrated there in May 1918 at the initiative of the then-mayor of Tokyo.
When the valleys turn colour
Guidebooks describe late April through May as a favoured season, when new foliage sweeps the mountains and wildflowers—mountain azaleas, katakuri (dogtooth violet), and anemones—bloom along the trails. Guidebooks describe the autumn foliage of the Tanba and Nippara gorge areas as celebrated for generations, with peak colour in the upper water-source valleys around mid-October and near the town in early to mid-November.
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