Misty Mountains of Kumano Kodo

 

Before moving to Japan I had lived many years in a desert environment, so one of the most different and dramatic landscapes I encountered in Japan was the mists and clouds clinging to the forested mountainsides.

This was the setting for my third day walking the Kumano Kodo in the first days of March. I left Hongu, deep in the mountains, and headed roughly West towards the coast along the Nakahechi route.

The most travelled of the various routes that make up the World Heritage Kumano Kodo routes, After a couple of hours I had still nt met anyone else, though it was early in the "season", and I was walking in the opposite direction to most.

I was actually walking the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, but for walkers at least, the route followed the same route as the Kumano Kodo for the first few days.

Hosshinmon Oji

 

Day three of my walk along the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage and I leave Hongu and start to head west towards the coast. It was very misty. The first week or so of the Saigoku pilgrimage follows the same route as the Kumano Kodo, though in the opposite direction.

The next section of the route is by far the most popular of the various Kumano Kodo routes, and I expect to pass lots more people heading in the opposite direction to me.

A few kilometers outside of Hongu and I arrive at Hosshinmon Oji. The 99  shrines along the route are called oji, and on the first few days I passed very few, but the next few days there should be dozens.

Hosshinmon Oji is considered to be one of the gates into the sacred area of Hongu, though for me it signifies i am leaving Hongu. It was known as "the gate of  awakening of the aspiration to enlightenment" and formerly pilgrims would change their staffs at this point. All very Buddhist on what is nowadays touted as a shinto pilgrimage.

Kumano Hongu Taisha

 

Kumano Hongu Taisha is one of the three shrines that form the Kumano Sanzan, the focus of the famous Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage routes that are now a World Heritage Site.

Though now a purely "shinto" site the Kumano region was home to the Shugendo cult which incorporated daoist and Buddhist elements with mountain worship and kami. 

I was here as the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, probably the oldest pilgrimage route in Japan, now follows the same route s the Kumano Kodo in this section.

Hongu Taisha was moved to its current location on a hill overlooking the river in 1891 following a major flood 2 years previously that destroyed much of the shrine as it was located on a sandbank.

The original site of the shrine nearby is now marked by the tallest torii in the world.

Kumano Hongu Heritage Center

Hongu is kind of the central site of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes and shrines. I arrived there late on the second day of my walk along the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, ostensibky the oldest pilgrimage in Japan, and which follows parts of the Kumano Kodo for the first week.

Hongu is part of the World Heritage Sites, and so a brand new center has been constructed that offers all kind of information for visitors.

It was made out of local timber and for me was actually more interesting than all the historical and visitor information.

After here I headed to Hoingu Taishi for a quick visit before finding my lodgings for the night.

Echizen-toge Pass

Early on my second day walking the Saigoku Pilgrimage I left the Jizo Jaya Teahouse area and followed the stone path through the forest.

Over one pass, then a short downhill then a short uphill to Echizen Toge Pass. From here it is about a 4k downhill walk to the river about 800 meters lower in altitude. Most people climb up as part of the Nakahechi route of the Kumano Kodo, but I was walking the Saigoku Pilgrimage which follows the same route but in the opposite direction. It is said that the climb up to Echizen Toge is the toughest part of the route.

Yesterday I had passed only one soul walking the trail in the opposite direction to me. Today I past several largish groups of chattery people on their way up. They must hve started pretty early and were obviously planning to get to Nachi before the day was too old.

There were, of course, plenty of statues along the wayside. At the river, I started back up as I had another climb and descent before I reached my destination for the day, Hongu.

Jizo Jaya Teahouse

Jizo Jaya Teahouse

Rest area at Jizo Jaya Teahouse on the Kumano Kodo

Towards the end of my first day walking the Saigoku Pilgrimage, I reached the site of the former Jizo Jaya Teahouse. It is located about halfway along the Ogumotori-goe section of the Nakahechi Route of the Kumano Kodo. This first section of the Saigoku pilgrimage follows the Kumano Kodo route for a few days. During the previous few hours of climbing up through the forest I had passed signs indicating former sites of teahouses along the path, none of which still stand.

The view from the rest area at Jizo Jaya Teahouse

These teahouse4s were not the rustic, but expensive, small rooms where the rich indulged their pretensions to sophistication by memorizing a complex set of minute rituals of the tea ceremony. Nor were they the tearooms of the pleasure districts of Edo Period Japan where sexual assignations took place, a foreunner of the Love Hotels of today. These teahouses were more akin to the service areas found along highways nowadays, places to rest, refuel, and replenish.

Jizo-do at Jizo Jaya Teahouse rest area.

Now there is a covered rest area for shelter from the weather, toilets, and even a vending machine. A recently rebuilt Jizo-do houses a group of Jizo statues, and there is also a large, gravel floored structure which is open and also available to take shelter and rest.

Jizo statues along the Kumano Kodo

The trail had followed a forest road for a few k, though there was absolutely no traffic. In fact, I had not seen any other humans other than a solitary Frenchman since I left Seigantoji Temple at the start of my walk earlier in the day. This was an obvious place to stop for the night as there was nothing but forest for the next 10k or so. Most people nowadays have well-planned and organized schedules for their pilgrimages where nothing is left to chance and the unexpected is avoided. It is recommended that this section of the trail be started early so accommodation or transport can be reached easily. I prefer to carry a sleeping bag and enough food and drink so that I can wing it and take advantage of the unexpected adventures that offer themselves and so get to sleep rough a fair bit. Some of you, I hope, can appreciate that  the delights of sleeping out often outweigh the discomforts.

Rest space for pilgrims and hikers along the Nakahechi Trail.

For as far as my ears could hear, and as far as my eyes could see, I was alone. Without a cellphone or other people I was free to immerse myself in the world and allow my usually chattering mind to continue its solo dance without distractions.

Buy dokudami tea from Japan

The Start of the Saigoku Pilgrimage

Saigoku Pilgrimage

Saturday, March 5th, 2016 and I leave Seiganto-ji, the first temple on the Saigoku Pilgrimage. It was not originally the first temple. That was, I believe, Hasedera up in Nara, but I'm guessing because of the popularity of the pilgrimages to Kumano it was changed.

The first 8 days or so of the Saigoku Pilgrimage follows the same route as some of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes, and this section from Nachi up to Homgu is called the Nakahechi From the temple stone steps climb up through the forest.

After a while it opens up and become Nachi Kogen Park and it's possible to look down over Nachi and further south. Just as I'm leaving the park I meet a young Frenchman walking in the opposite direction. He has come from Tanabe, where most people start, and after Nachi he will walk the Iseji route up the coast. He complained about the paucity of places to sleep out on the route, having spent a rainy night in the disabled toilets of a park on his first night out.

He was the last person I saw that day. The path continued to climb through the forest and from the site of a former teahouse there are even more expansive views. When the Kumano Kodo was a popular pilgrimage route there were many teahouses along the way offering refreshments and respite for pilgrims, but now they almost all just marked by a sign.

Seiganto-ji Temple at Nachi

The Nyorindo, the main hall of Seiganto-ji, the Tendai temple that is the "buddhist" part of the shrine-temple complex at Nachi, next to the highest waterfall in Japan. The current main hall dates to 1587 and was built by Hideyoshi after the original buildings had been razed by Oda Nobunaga. It's the oldest extant building in the southern part of the Kii Peninsula.

I was here because it is the first temple on the Saigoku Pilgrimage dedicated to Kannon, and probably the oldest pilgrimage route in Japan. According to the legend it was founded in the 4th Century by a monk from India. In the first years of Meiji Buddhism and Shinto were forcibly and artificially seperated but still today the complex occupies the same space.

En No Gyoja, legendary founder of Shugendo, an ecelectic mix of Daoism, Mountain worship, Shinto, and esoteric Buddhism. Seigantoji is part of the Kumano Sanzan, the three sites in the Kumano region that were a major center for Shugendo in historical times.

It's a fairly large complex spread over the mountainside. Previous posts include the trail leading up to the complex, the shrine complex right next door, and of course the pagoda with waterfall behind.

Above the main hall is the Nyohodo, the Hall of Lanterns, dedicated to Daikoku, one of the 7 Lucky Gods.

Nachi Taisha

Kumano Nachi Taisha is one of the three Kumano shrines that are the focus of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes in the Kii peninsula of Wakayama.

The Nachi Taisha complex is on a hillside overlooking Nachi Waterfall, the highest in Japan, and an object of veneration since ancient times.

It is believed that the shrine was originally closer to the falls. The identity of the kami enshrined is quite complex.

Seiganto-ji temple was part of the complex until being somewhat separated from the shrine.

Nachi Cliche

Ranking up there with a bullet train in front of Mount Fuji, a geisha in Gion, a tunnel of torii at Fushimi Inari, and sunset at the floating torii of Miyajima, the pagoda with Nachi Falls behind it is a full fledged Japan photo cliche.....

So here are a few of mine.....

Taken on the first day of my walk along the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, the first few days of which follow the Kumano Kodo....

Earlier that morning I had visited Fudarakusan Temple where monks would set of on suicide boat journeys,..... earlier today I was reading that monks used to jump off from the top of the falls as another way to quickly reach Kannons paradise...