Yoshino-Kumano’s wild wonders have made it a magnet for nature worshippers and religious pilgrims for over 1,000 years. The park encompasses several parts of Mie, Nara and Wakayama prefectures. Its highlights include sites of deep spiritual significance, ancient forests, a dramatic coastline, and some of the world’s most fascinating geological formations.
Yoshino-Kumano National Park includes sections of three prefectures—Wakayama, Mie and Nara—in a vast area south of Osaka. The park’s crowning glory, three grand shrines known collectively as Kumano Sanzan, are at the heart of the park. Kumano Hayatama, Kumano Hongu and Kumano Nachi have drawn pilgrims since the Heian period (794–1185), when they were at the heart of a folk nature religion known as Shugendo. The synergy between nature and spirituality is a theme that echoes throughout the park. Nature worshippers of all kinds still walk the pilgrimage routes known as the Kumano Kodo that run through forests and along shores to these shrines. White-sand beaches, rugged islets and wildly artistic rock formations resulting from a vast magma chamber explosion 14 million years ago make the park’s attractions even more diverse and plentiful.
Mount Yoshino stands at the northernmost point of Yoshino-Kumano National Park. The mountain is covered with thousands of cherry trees, making it an extremely desirable destination in early spring. Further south, Odaigahara Plateau provides picturesque hiking opportunities. Pick up a trail map from the Odaigahara Visitor Center and follow the route to the lookout at Mount Hidegatake in the Higashi-Odai area. On exceptionally clear days, you may even catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji. This mountain pass continues to a plain where withered beech trees and bamboo grasses create an otherworldly landscape. Another highlight of the hike is Daijagura, a rocky plateau famous for the rich palette of its autumn foliage.
The Nishi-Odai section of the Odaigahara Plateau is home to natural forests, mainly composed of beech, where Japanese deer, wrens, Japanese robins and Odaigahara salamanders live. A variety of beautiful mosses carpet the forest floor. Nishi-Odai is classified as a Regulated Utilization Area, meaning that the number of visitors to the area is restricted and you must follow certain procedures before entering. These include making advance reservations and attending a lecture at the Odaigahara Visitor Center before setting out on your exploration. You can find details on the application process here.
Further south is Dorokyo Gorge, a scenic ravine with deep turquoise waters and unusual rock formations. The best way to explore the gorge is by speedboat.
Alternatively, you can try log-rafting here. Between 1604 and 1963, wooden rafts transported logs from the mountains down the river. The experience is a fun way to explore the scenery of the gorge.
Situated on the southeastern tip of Honshu, the Kii Peninsula is the center of nature worship in the region. Here you can walk in the footsteps of pilgrims; religious ascetics have walked the ancient Kumano Kodo trails for over 1,000 years. The paths were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. The Daimonzaka Trail is a particularly lovely short stretch—a mossy, cobbled path that winds through towering cedar trees toward Nachi Falls, the largest single-drop waterfall in Japan. The 133-meter falls are spectacular, and if you’re there on the first of the month you can watch priests offer flowers to the cascading waters during a Shinto ceremony.
A short walk up from the falls is Kumano Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine. This Shinto shrine is one of the Kumano Sanzan—the three grand shrines on the Kumano Kodo trails. Nearby the shrine is the perfect spot to get the iconic view of the three-story pagoda of Seigantoji Temple, atop Mount Nachi and with Nachi Falls in the background.
The coastal areas of Shirahama offer you white-sand beaches, warm waters and a vast number of unusual rock formations, right down to Kushimoto and Cape Shionomisaki. The Nanki Kumano Geopark Center is a great starting point for exploring the region. It explains the cataclysmic creation of the world’s largest caldera 14 million years ago and how that shaped the terrain. Two fascinating examples are Hashiguiiwa—a series of stone pillars stretching out like a pier into the sea—and Senjojiki, a plateau of layered sand and mudstone.
The Kuroshio, a warm ocean current originating in the Philippines, runs along the coast here, making the waters far more temperate than they would otherwise be at this latitude. The seas here are home to some of the world’s northernmost coral colonies, which you can view from Kushimoto Marine Park’s underwater observation deck.
Nagaizaka is a stretch of the Ohechi Kumano Kodo route that runs for 4.5 kilometers along the Shirahama Coast. Although it's a bit of a steep climb, you’ll be rewarded with fine vistas of the shoreline. Poorer pilgrims would have taken this picturesque trail, so its mud paths differ in grandeur from the cobbled path of the Daimonzaka trail.
The link between humans and nature is strong at Yoshino-Kumano. During the Heian period (794–1185), Shugendo, an ancient mountain ascetic religion that fused elements of Buddhism and Shinto, was widely practiced. Its followers particularly revered the Yoshino-Kumano area. In fact, they believed heaven lay beyond it at the southernmost tip of the island of Honshu. The warm environment and lush, evergreen forests made that notion easy to believe. The Kumano Kodo pilgrimage was born out of this belief that Wakayama was heaven on earth.
Shugendo no longer exists as an organized religion, with most of its adherents choosing to pursue either Shintoism or Buddhism. Nachi Falls, however, is one place that draws believers from all three religions, past and present. A temple and shrine sit side by side at the falls, which has long been worshipped by Shugendo practitioners.
