In March 2024 I walked a section of the Kumano Kodo on the Kii Peninsula in Japan.
The Kumano Kodo was in my mind since COVID time, when in Melbourne Australia, we were locked into our home and permitted an hour's exercise a day limited to a 5km radius. Hiking through the majestic forests from shrine to shrine in solitude seemed to stir something in my soul.
Kumano Kodo refers to a network of pilgrimage trails that run through the southern Kansai region of Japan.
They have been in use for over 1000 years, and are designated a World Heritage location. The only other similar trail being the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The trail developed as a way for people to move between between the "Kumano Sanzan" - the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano: Kumano Hongū Taisha, Kumano Nachi Taisha and Kumano Hayatama Taisha.
The Kumano Kodo is huge, and there are many trail options which would takes weeks to complete, with the help of the Kumano Tourism Bureau, I booked a three night, four day highlight self guided tour. This combined around 12kms of steep hiking with a boat ride and stays in amazing Onsen villages, along with a visit to each of the major shrines. It would have been so incredibly difficult to book this trip without the help of the Bureau as many of these spots don't have a web presence, and if they did, not in english. The site helped me book accommodation, book luggage transfers, book lunch boxes to take with me on the hikes. Whilst a little tricky to navigate, it was an absolute life saver, and everything went perfectly to plan.
In my minds eye it was to be a peaceful hike through beautiful sunlit forests, although in the week I visited I was met with almost constant downpours of rain. Not to be deterred, I had warm wet weather gear, hiking poles and waterproof hiking boots. Whilst not what I had envisaged, the hike was so atmospheric and led to some beautiful moody images.
Spending the day hiking, and finishing at an onsen town where I could immediately strip off my wet gear and soak in a gorgeous hot mineral bath was so wonderful! The food was universally fantastic with Kaiseki meals featuring multiple courses of fresh local produce - I loved looking forward to these meals each day.
Kawayu Onsen
The first stop on my itinerary was Kawayu Onsen, a small town nestled in the hills of the penninsula. To get there I took a 1.5 hour bus trip from Kii Tanabe station. The bus was packed with fellow hikers armed with backpacks, and walking poles, and it was a bit of a squeeze onboard for most of the trip! I arrived late afternoon to check into Fujiya Ryokan, and was here for the evening, leaving at around 9am the next morning.
The weather was overcast, wet and generally unpleasant! I was still quite tired from my Nakasendo hike, and lightening visit of Osaka, so I took it easy before another day of hiking. Staying at Ryokan, or Japanese style inns, you are generally provided with a yukata (male kimono) and haori or tanzen that can be worn over the top during cooler weather. It's normal to wear these around the inn, to meals and to the onsen. I had a play with self portraits wearing mine, you can see a black and white version above!
Before dinner I went to my first onsen, which was a bit nerve wracking! The inn had indoor and outdoor (screened) onsen, segregated by gender. The gender allowed into each onsen swapped each day so that you could experience the different baths. When going to an onsen, you first enter a change room, where you must remove all of your clothes, before you enter the onsen area with a small hand towel. The towel can be held as a modesty towel, or not. Once you enter the onsen room, you must sit on a stool in front of one of the many taps with hoses and wash yourself. First rinsing yourself. You can then choose to dip in the water before coming out and washing with soap and re-enter the water, or you can just wash and then get into the water. The tubs are usually very large, with people sitting around the edges relaxing in the warm water. It's a bit confronting at first for those coming from a culture that doesn't have a lot of public nudity, but after a few times it's fine. It helps when you're a solo traveller and not going in with friends (which could feel a bit awkward!).
I really enjoyed soaking in the water, and went again in the morning before breakfast. I loved the outdoor pool, with the cool air temperature and gentle rain contrasting with the steaming water.
On the riverbank outside, you can make little holes in the stones, and hot water will fill them up to make your own little onsen, or you can use the public onsen (shown on the right). Outdoors you gotta wear bathers obviously!
Hosshinmon-Oji to Kumano Hongu Taisha
This was the major hike of this Kumano Kodo itinerary and is one of the most popular routes. It traverses a wide range of scenery, from forests to small towns, tiny mountain shrines, and large temples. It was a very wet day, so I was bundled up with wet weather hiking gear. I still got pretty wet that day!
From the Kumano Tourism Beaurau:
Hosshinmon-oji is known as the “gate of awakening of the aspiration to enlightenment” and marks the outermost entrance to Kumano Hongu Taisha’s sacred precincts. The route follows a road through Hosshinmon Village from here to Mizunomi-oji. Keep a lookout for the folk-art word carvings along the way. The trail enters the forest at Mizunomi-oji, the site of an old schoolhouse, and exits at the west end of the Fushiogami settlement, with its numerous tea plantations and terraced fields. Fushiogami-oji is where pilgrims fell to their knees and prayed after catching their first glimpse of the grand shrine in the distant valley below. There is a covered rest area here where locals serve handmade snacks and coffee made with hot spring water (days in operation may change). From here the trail descends through the forest, past Sangen-jaya to the austere Kumano Hongu Taisha.
At the rest area I tried Onsen Coffee - coffee made with onsen mineral water. If you enjoy eggy sulfury tasting coffee, it was great!
Kumano Hongu Taisha at Oyunohara - one of the main Kumano Kodo temples.
The entrance to Oyunohara is marked by the largest Torii shrine gate in the world (33.9 meters tall and 42 meters wide). It’s a formalized gateway that designates the entrance to a sacred area. It signifies the division of the secular and the spiritual worlds. This Torii is called Otorii, O means “big”. It was erected in the year 2000 and is made of steel.
There's a great visitor centre after Hongu Taisha, just before this Torii gate. I ate my lunchbox (taken from the inn that morning, and booked through the travel bureau) there under cover. The lunchbox was full of delicious rice balls with vegetable or meat fillings. It was perfect to keep me charged for such an active day.
This was one of my favourite scenes of the day - Tsukimigaoka Shrine. Once I arrived at Hongu Taisha, I could choose to take a bus to that night's inn, or take another steep trail extension to walk to the next town. I chose the latter, and close to the top of the hill, the path took me past this incredible little shrine. It was so atmospheric shrouded in mist, with the rain coming down through the trees. Although I was pretty exhausted, and a little on the miserable side, I still had to stop to take a bunch of images here.
Yunomine Onsen
Yunomine Onsen was discovered around 1,800 years ago, and is a small collection of inns and hotels gathered around hot springs. It has a small hut where you can bathe in a world heritage listen onsen for a small charge. You can also buy eggs or vegetables and cook them in the hot spring water! I stayed in Ryokan Adumaya, right at the centre of the town.
When I arrived I was soaked, muddy, sweaty and exhausted but the staff took such good care of me! The room was traditional in style, and I wasted no time at all in drying off and making a bee-line for the onsen! The meals were amazing, all cooked with the local onsen water.
Kumano-gawa, Hayatama Taisha & Kamikura-Jinja
After an exhausting day, this segment of the trip was a little more laid back! Catching the bus the next morning to the Kumano-gawa (Kumano River) was pretty easy, and they dropped us off at our pre-arranged boat tour. This trip was also a pilgrim route, along the river through the mountains. Today this section of the river is a world heritage site, and is quite beautiful.
The trip lasted for an hour or so, and took us to the town of Maruyama, where another of the grand kumano shrines is located - the Kumano Hayatama Taisha.
I had organised a local guide through the tourist bureau, and we toured the temple above, and then visited the Kamikura Shrine. This was really interesting - first the incredibly steep steps up the mountain, and then the temple set next to the huge boulder. This is where the gods are said to have first descended to earth. The boulder is called Gotobiki-iwa, and is the dwelling place of one of the shrine's deities. This was the original shrine, before the main Hatayama Taisha was constructed.
There is a crazy Oto Matsuri Festival where men run down the 538 steep steps in pitch darkness holding lit torches (fire). This would be incredible to see one day!
Kaatsura
After the shrines above, a 20 minute train ride took me to the port city of Kaatsura where I would spend the night. I stayed at Onsen Minsuku Kosakaya for the evening, needing to leave mid morning the next day. Arriving quite late, I again hit the onsen, which in this case was like a large 4 person bathtub. This is a family run inn rather than a Ryokan, so a little bit more frugal, but perfectly comfortable, the meals had plentiful food, and didn't leave me wanting for anything. The hosts were very friendly and very accommodating.
Due to early morning train, they arranged a very early taxi for me to go to see the main temple the next morning, and given I would miss breakfast, they organised a little pack of food for me to take with me :)
In the evening I took a stroll around the town, taking a few images of small ordinary scenes that interested me.
Nachi Taisha
Given that I had to catch an 8am bus back down the mountain to catch a 9am train, and I wanted at least 2 hours at the temple, I had to get up there before the first bus. The inn arranged a 5:00am taxi for me, which drove me up the mountain to the third major Kumano temple - Nachi Taisha. The weather was WET. Like pouring with rain, but this would be my only chance to visit perhaps in my life time.
There is the option to hike to the temple up a trail from lower down the mountain, but unfortunately I didn't have time to do it.
Below is one of the main views I wanted to photograph on this part of the trip.
This is a pretty huge temple complex, and it took me a while scurrying around stairs to find a vantage point that I was happy with. Apparently there is a better one on a hike half way up the hill, but I didn't have time to find it. Luckily once I'd set up, there was a break in the rain and fog that allowed me to captured a great atmospheric image. This combines the Nachi-no-Otaki (waterfall) which is 133 meters high and 13 meters wide. In front is the Seiganto-ji Temple Sanjuno-to 3 Storied Pagoda.
This was the Tobitaki Shrine Torii, and entrance down a trail down to the base of the waterfall. It was raining HARD.
After visiting the waterfall, my motivation and perseverance for making images in torrential rain was almost over, and I hot footed it back up the trail to wait for the bus that was due any moment. It arrived relatively on time and took me back to the main station where I'd stored my bag the night before, grabbed it out of the storage locker and made it onto the train for a 4.5 hour trip up to Kyoto.