Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage: Nakahechi to the Three Grand Shrines — 3 Days

The traditional gateway to the sacred Kumano mountains and the usual starting point of a Nakahechi walk, a small shrine at the confluence of two rivers where pilgrims once purified themselves before the climb. A modern information centre beside it issues the dual-pilgrim certificate and explains the route; behind, the trail rises immediately and steeply into the cedars. This is where the walking begins.

Free; the information centre keeps daytime hours. Reached by bus from Kii-Tanabe Station (about 40 minutes). Fill water and use the toilets here — the climb to the first pass is steep with no facilities. Good walking shoes essential.

A roadside station on the Nakahechi where walkers and drivers stop for a simple local lunch and a rest. The restaurant serves country dishes — mehari-zushi rice balls wrapped in pickled mustard leaf, mountain-vegetable soba and rice sets — alongside a farm shop of local produce and trail snacks. It sits roughly at the point where the morning forest section meets the road, making it the natural midday break before the afternoon walk to Chikatsuyu.

Open daytime; a simple set lunch runs roughly ¥800-1,400 (approx., 2026). On Route 311 in the Nakahechi area. Hours and the restaurant's open days can vary in the off-season — carry a backup snack. A good place to top up water.

One of the most atmospheric of the wayside shrines, set on a rise among a stand of giant cedars known as the Ippo-sugi, whose branches all lean toward Kumano. A steep flight of stone steps climbs to the small hall through the great trees; beside it sits the village of Nonaka. For the medieval pilgrims these oji were waypoints for prayer and rest, and Tsugizakura is where their meaning is easiest to feel.

Free, open at all hours; on the trail above Nonaka. The stone steps are steep but short. The nearby Nonaka spring is a good place to rest. From here it is a downhill walk into Chikatsuyu for the night.

A clear mountain spring beside the trail at Nonaka, named one of Japan's hundred finest waters and a resting point for pilgrims for centuries. The cold, sweet water still runs freely from the rock, and villagers and walkers alike fill bottles here. It is a small thing — a stone basin, a dipper, the sound of running water under the cedars — but exactly the kind of human waypoint that gives the Nakahechi its texture.

Free, open at all hours, beside the trail at Nonaka near Tsugizakura-oji. The water is drinkable. A two-minute stop and a refill, then the short walk down to your minshuku.

Chikatsuyu is the classic overnight village on the Nakahechi, a small farming hamlet in a river valley where a cluster of family-run minshuku and guesthouses host walkers with home-cooked dinners and futon on tatami. There is no luxury here and that is the point — a hot bath, a hearty meal of river fish and mountain vegetables, and an early night before the longest walking day. The hospitality of these houses is part of the pilgrimage.

Most minshuku include dinner and breakfast; book ahead through the Tanabe City tourism bureau's reservation system (rooms are limited and fill in season). In Chikatsuyu village. Arrange the next day's luggage shuttle here so you walk to Hongu unburdened.

The head shrine of the more than three thousand Kumano shrines across Japan, reached by a long flight of cedar-shaded stone steps to a row of cypress-bark halls of austere, ancient dignity — no vermilion here, only dark unpainted wood and the three-legged Yatagarasu crow that is the shrine's emblem. After two days of walking toward it, arriving at the top of these steps is the emotional centre of the whole route. Take your time at each of the inner halls.

Free; grounds open roughly 08:00-17:00. At the foot of the steps sits the bus interchange for Tanabe, Shingu and Nachi. From the shrine it is a few minutes' walk to Oyunohara. Allow about an hour.

The original site of Kumano Hongu Taisha, on a broad sandbank between two rivers, where the shrine stood until a catastrophic 1889 flood forced it to move uphill to its present home. The spot is now marked by the largest torii gate in Japan — a steel arch nearly 34 metres high, visible across the rice fields long before you reach it. Standing alone in the open where the great shrine once was, it is one of the most photographed and most moving sights on the route.

Free, open at all hours; a 5-10 minute walk from Hongu Taisha across the rice fields. The approach through the fields is especially good in the low light of late afternoon. No structures remain on the sandbank itself beyond the torii and two small stone shrines.

The route's main visitor centre, across the road from Hongu Taisha, with clear English exhibits on the history of the Kumano faith, the pilgrimage trails and their UNESCO listing alongside the Camino de Santiago. It is the place to understand what you have just walked through — the imperial pilgrimages, the syncretic mountain religion, the meaning of the oji shrines — and to rest, use the facilities and pick up route information for the final day.

Open roughly 09:00-17:00; free entry to the exhibits. Beside the Hongu bus interchange. A good place to wait out the bus to Yunomine, a short ride away, or to confirm the next morning's connections to Nachi.

A tiny hot-spring hamlet in a steep valley, said to be one of Japan's oldest at some 1,800 years, where pilgrims have purified themselves for centuries before the final approach to Kumano. Its centrepiece is Tsuboyu, a two-person rock bath in a wooden cabin straddling the stream — the only bathable hot spring registered as UNESCO World Heritage. The water changes colour through the day; you book a 30-minute private slot and soak in water the colour of milk. The hamlet also has a public bath and an onsen where eggs cook in the hot source.

Tsuboyu is first-come via a numbered ticket at the public bathhouse, around ¥800, 30-minute private slots, roughly 06:00-20:00 (approx., 2026); it is tiny and closes briefly for daily cleaning, so go early. A short bus ride or walk from Hongu. Bring a small towel.

A traditional inn at the heart of Yunomine Onsen, founded in the Edo period and run for generations, with its own large baths drawing on the hamlet's celebrated waters and kaiseki dinners of river fish, mountain vegetables and local game. It is the upscale anchor of an otherwise humble onsen village — wooden corridors, tatami rooms and the particular comfort of a long soak after a long day's walk. The staff handle Kumano walkers regularly and speak some English.

Stays include kaiseki dinner and breakfast; rates vary by room and season (2026) — book ahead, directly or through the Tanabe City reservation system. In the centre of Yunomine, by the bus stop. Ask about the morning bus to the Daimonzaka and Nachi area.

The most beautiful surviving stretch of the Kumano Kodo: a moss-covered stone-paved path of some 267 steps climbing under a corridor of towering cryptomeria, two of them — the Meoto-sugi 'married cedars' — over eight hundred years old. Walking it in the green half-light, with the trees closing overhead, is the closest you come to the route as the medieval pilgrims knew it. You can even rent Heian-era pilgrim costume at the foot to climb in.

Free, open at all hours; the foot of the path is a stop on the Nachi bus route from Kii-Katsuura and Nachi stations. The climb to the shrine area takes about 30-40 minutes. Stone steps can be slippery when wet — sound footwear helps.

The third of the Grand Shrines, set high on the mountainside above the coast, its vermilion halls sitting beside the Buddhist temple of Seiganto-ji in a rare surviving pairing of shrine and temple that the rest of Japan separated in the 19th century. From the temple's grounds the celebrated view opens up: Seiganto-ji's three-storey vermilion pagoda in the foreground and, behind it, the white thread of Nachi Falls plunging down the green mountain. It is one of the defining images of Japan.

Shrine grounds free; the pagoda has a small admission of around ¥300 for the viewing balcony (approx., 2026). At the top of the Daimonzaka steps and a long stair beyond. Open roughly 07:00-16:30. Allow an hour for the shrine, temple and pagoda view.

At 133 metres, the tallest single-drop waterfall in Japan, a sheer white column falling off the green mountain that has been worshipped as a deity in its own right since before the shrines were built. A short walk down from Nachi Taisha brings you to Hiro Shrine at its foot, where you can stand close to the thundering water and, for a small fee, climb to an upper viewing platform nearer the lip. The falls are the original object of the whole Nachi pilgrimage.

The base shrine is free; the upper viewing platform is around ¥300 (approx., 2026), open roughly 07:00-16:30. A short downhill walk from Nachi Taisha; buses also stop near the falls. The volume is greatest after rain. Allow 30-40 minutes.

The third Grand Shrine, on the bank of the Kumano River in the town of Shingu, its bright vermilion halls a vivid contrast to the dark wood of Hongu. A vast 1,000-year-old conifer stands in the precinct, and the shrine's treasure hall holds an extraordinary trove of National-Treasure ritual objects. Reaching it completes the circuit of the three Kumano shrines — the kumano sanzan — that the whole pilgrimage is built toward.

Free; grounds open roughly 08:00-17:00, treasure hall a small fee. In central Shingu, a short ride down the coast from Nachi by train or bus. Allow about 40 minutes. From here the Gotobiki rock-shrine of Kamikura is a short distance away.

The wild, primal shrine of Shingu, reached by a steep flight of 538 rough stone steps up a forested hillside to a small hall beneath the Gotobiki-iwa, a huge overhanging boulder revered as the place where the Kumano gods first descended to earth. It is older in feeling than the grand shrines below — raw rock and effort rather than vermilion and ceremony — and the view back over Shingu and the sea from the top is the reward. A fitting, elemental end to the pilgrimage.

Free, open at all hours; the steps are very steep and uneven — climb carefully and avoid in the wet or after dark. In Shingu, a short walk or taxi from Hayatama Taisha. Allow 45 minutes including the climb. Not advisable for those with mobility concerns.