Every road in the Kumano region leads to the same place. For over a thousand years, pilgrims -- retired emperors, barefoot ascetics, common farmers -- have walked the forested mountain paths of the Kii Peninsula toward a single destination: Kumano Hongu Taisha, the Grand Shrine. It sits today on a wooded hillside in the jurisdiction of Tanabe, Wakayama, surrounded by cryptomeria trees so tall they turn the daylight green. But the shrine was not always here. Its original home, a sandbank called Oyunohara at the confluence of the Kumano and Otonashi rivers, was destroyed by a catastrophic flood in 1889. The shrine was rebuilt uphill in 1891. The sandbank remained empty for over a century, until the year 2000, when the world's largest torii gate -- 33.9 meters tall, 42 meters wide, weighing 172 tons of steel -- rose over the gravel flats to mark the exact spot where the sacred once stood.
Kumano Hongu Taisha is the head shrine of the Kumano Sanzan, the trio of grand shrines that anchor one of only two pilgrimage route networks in the world designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites (the other being the Camino de Santiago in Spain). Five ancient routes -- the Nakahechi, Kohechi, Ohechi, Iseji, and Kiji -- radiate across the Kii Peninsula, and every one of them ends here. The shrine enshrines the Kumano Sansho Gongen: the deities Ketsumimiko, Hayatama, and Fusubi. For more than 1,200 years, the faithful have arrived at these gates exhausted from days of mountain walking, their journey rewarded by the sight of dark cypress wood and gleaming bronze set against the forest canopy. The Kumano Kodo and the Camino de Santiago became formally twinned as sister pilgrimage routes in 1998, and today hikers who complete both can earn a Dual Pilgrim credential.
The earliest records trace the shrine's origins to the first century BC. Over 900 years ago, a pilgrim described a massive complex of five main pavilions enshrining twelve deities, surrounded by smaller temples, a Noh theater stage, a two-story Romon gate, and a Kagura-den dance stage. Periodic fires and floods destroyed portions of the complex repeatedly over the centuries, but the faithful always rebuilt to the original specifications. The last fire came in 1776, and reconstruction was completed in 1803 -- the floor plan nearly identical to drawings made 800 years earlier. Then, in 1889, a massive flood tore through the river confluence. Most of the vast complex was destroyed. Only three of the original five main pavilions were salvageable. They were moved uphill and rebuilt at the current location in 1891, carrying four of the twelve deities. The other eight remain enshrined at Oyunohara in two stone monuments.
The shrine's architecture is an outstanding example of classical Japanese construction. No nails were used -- the pavilions are held together entirely by intricate joinery. Natural, unfinished wood allows the buildings to dissolve into the surrounding forest. The thick hinoki cypress bark roof sweeps forward over the entrance stairs, and bronze ornaments crown the ridgeline: X-shaped chigi crosspieces piercing the sky and cylindrical katsuogi beams laid horizontally along the ridge. But Kumano Hongu Taisha has a feature found nowhere else. Beneath the verandas of the pavilions runs a narrow corridor, a sheltered space where pilgrims and ascetics would meditate, copy sutras, perform austere rites, and even sleep. This is where the Buddhist monk Ippen Shonin experienced his enlightenment in the 13th century. The corridor gave the shrine its own architectural classification -- the Kumano style -- blending elements of the Kasuga and Taisha traditions into something unique.
The shrine's festivals bring its spiritual traditions to vivid life. During the Spring Festival, held April 13 through 15 each year, fathers and their young sons purify themselves in the sacred hot spring waters of Yunomine Onsen, then walk the Dainichi-goe section of the Kumano Kodo to Oyunohara in traditional costumes. The boys wear the character for "big" painted on their foreheads and are not permitted to touch the ground. On April 15, the Kumano deities are ceremonially invoked to reside temporarily in a portable mikoshi shrine and return to their original place of descent at Oyunohara. In late August, the Yata-no-Hi Matsuri Fire Festival honors Yatagarasu, the mythical three-legged crow that serves as a divine messenger. Fire mikoshi are paraded through the night, taiko drums thunder across the river valley, and fireworks burst above the sandbank where the great torii stands in the darkness.
A ten-minute walk from the current shrine, through a grove of ancient trees, brings you to Oyunohara. The great Otorii appears suddenly, its black steel form towering over the gravel flats where twelve shrines once stood. The gate took six months to fabricate and another six months to assemble. Passing beneath it, you cross from the secular world into the spiritual one -- that is the purpose of every torii, but here, standing on the empty sandbank where one of Japan's most important shrine complexes stood for millennia before the river claimed it, the threshold feels literal. Two stone altars remain: one for the Middle Four Shrines and their deities, one for the spirits of the subsidiary shrines. The clearing is quiet. The rivers still meet below. And every Kumano Kodo trail still leads here, to the place where the sacred world begins.
Located at 33.84N, 135.77E deep in the mountainous interior of the Kii Peninsula, Wakayama Prefecture. The shrine sits in a forested river valley at the confluence of the Kumano and Otonashi rivers. The great Otorii gate at Oyunohara, standing 33.9 meters tall on the gravel flats, may be visible from lower altitudes in clear conditions. The surrounding terrain is heavily mountainous with dense forest cover. Nearest airport is Nanki-Shirahama Airport (RJBD), approximately 50 km to the southwest. Kansai International Airport (RJBB) is approximately 130 km to the northwest. Best viewed at 3,000-5,000 feet AGL following the Kumano River valley from the coast inland.