The Kurobe River (黒部川, Kurobe-gawa?) is a river in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. 86 km in length, it has a watershed of 689 km².
The river rises from Mount Washiba in the Hida Mountains and carves the deep valley known as the Kurobe gorge. It comes out of the mountains at Unazuki and forms an alluvial fan which directly sinks into the Sea of Japan.
The Kurobe River's rich flow and steep gradient offer good conditions for hydroelectricity. The Kurobe Dam is the tallest dam in Japan.
The name Kurobe is meaningless in Japanese. It appears to be an Ainu name, kur pet 'shady river'.
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.
There’s a woden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean—a river dried to its bed”
—Charles Simic (b. 1938)