Kumano Hongu Taisha

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About Kumano Hongu Taisha

Kumano Hongu Taisha is the central shrine of Kumano worship and the arrival point of the Nakahechi trail. The dark wooden buildings, with cypress bark roofs, sit at the top of a stone staircase of 158 steps, flanked by cedars and prayer banners. The shrine’s emblem is the Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow that, according to myth, guided Japan’s first emperor through the Kumano mountains and today appears on charms and mailboxes.

Until 1889 the shrine stood at Oyunohara, a sandbank at the confluence of three rivers, about 500 meters away. A major flood destroyed part of the buildings, and the remaining structures were moved to the current, higher hill. The main buildings date from 1802.

Oyunohara remains sacred and can be visited: the path runs between rice fields to a gigantic steel torii of about 34 meters, erected in 2000, and reaches a grove with two small memorial stones marking the sites of the former shrines. The view of the torii with the mountains behind is one of the region’s best-known images.

Near the shrine are the Kumano Hongu Heritage Center, with exhibits about the pilgrimage and the World Heritage designation, and small shops. The shrine is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, inscribed by UNESCO in 2004.