life, upside down: Trip to the Kii Peninsula III – walking the Kumano Kodo (part II)

The red bridge

Day 4

From where we left off, we continued our walk along the Kumano Kodo from Totsukawa Onsen village. We crossed the red bridge and continued on our way, just a short jaunt along the road before stepping back onto the trail. When we reached the trail we started to head up: another steep section up the mountain through the tall, cedar forest. Past a small shrine to Ojizo-sama, the old flagstone path curves up the mountainside and a string of telephone poles follows it up the mountain. The reason there are telephone lines is because we were about to walk through Hatenashi village,

View looking down toward Totsukawa Onsen

Hillside Ojizo-sama

Continuing up. There are powerlines up the mountain on this segment
of the walk because the path leads to Hatenashi Village further up the mountain.

The path to Hatenashi Village

Hatenashi 'Village' may be a little misleading because it is even smaller than it sounds. We heard that the 80-year old women who live here often come out to greet the travelers who pass directly beneath their eaves (the Kumano Kohechi goes through their fields and passes directly between their houses) but it was a quiet when we walked through. It was absolutely gorgeous: perhaps one of the most beautiful and picturesque mountain-top villages I will ever see. (This village even makes it onto a top 100 villages list in Japan.)

Mountain top rice field

The pilgrimage route passing between two houses
of Hatenashi Village

UNESCO World Heritage site marker. What a view!

From Hatenashi Village the route continued upwards. From here on we passed numerous stone Kannon (bodhisattva of compassion) statues: 30 of them in fact. (There are 33 all together, but numbers 31 through 33 were along a section of trail that we bypassed.) The trail evened out a little bit and we passed a clearing which was the remains of a residence as recently as the 1960s, and then up and up again. Most of the trail, by and large, is through tall forested areas, but segments of today's walking was through thick, dense and low forested areas as well. We stopped at a spring to fill our water bottles and made an offering to Kannon at a small shrine, then continued on our way. After reaching Hatenashi-toge Pass the trail began its decent – and as usual, a steep one at that too.

Old flagstones path

Through the thicket

Clearing of what used to be a residence along the trail

Kannon-do Shrine

Offering at Kannon-do

Looking down to Totsukawa Onsen. In the full size image you can see the
red bridge we passed over at the very beginning from here :)

Tall trees lining the mountainside

33 Kannon Statues (No. 17)

Aoba tonneru (green leaf tunnel)

33 Kannon Statues (No. 14)

33 Kannon Statues (No. 13)

33 Kannon Statues (No. 12)

33 Kannon Statues (No. 10)

33 Kannon Statues (No. 8)

Guided by the images of Kannon alongside us, we finished the descent down the mountain. From here the trail traveled alongside the road for a little while, following the river, passing through some residential areas and then back on the trail. Here we had the strangest experience of the whole trip when we stumbled upon a huge group of Italian tourists, walking a short segment of the trail toward Hongu Taisha. It was pretty strange experience after walking in relative isolation for four days.

Finally the path led us to the first view of the immense gate of Hongu Taisha, small and far off in the distance. It was really moving, really breathtaking to see our destination so close at last.

The blue-green mineral rich waters of the river

First view of the gate of Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine

Walking down the hill into the town of Hongu

The Kumano Kohechi route will take you into Hongu Taisha via the back entrance. (Photos are not allowed in the main area of the shrine and I didn't sneak any pictures, though you can google it which shows photos better than any I could take anyway.) Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine is the grandest of the three grand shrines and the head shrine of the some 3000 Kumano shrines around Japan. All the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes lead to Kumano Hongu Taisha.

There is a bit of interesting history of Hongu Taisha, in that the shrine used to be located on the plane next to the main gate (which is on the banks between the Kumano and the Otonashi rivers) but after flooding in the late 1800s the shrine was moved uphill. The torii gate at the original site of the shrine is one of the largest (if not the largest, as it was at the time of its construction in 2000) at 34 meters tall and 42 meters wide. (We have since heard other claims of the biggest torii gate in Japan so I'm not sure if it's currently the largest or not.)

We had read a little bit about the Kumano Grand Shrines before we came but it was only once here that we learned about the Yatagarasu, which is a symbol of Kumano Shinto. The Yatagarasu is a three-legged crow and a symbol of rebirth and rejuvenation as well as a symbol of guidance and divine intervention. I had seen this symbol before (as a Japanese football mascot, for one) but had never given it much thought in the past. We were to see a lot of it in the next few days.

After paying our respects and purchasing a couple omamori good-luck charms at the shrine office, we headed down the hill (which we would have had to climb had we come in the front door) and after a late afternoon snack of mikan sofuto kuriimu (mandarin orange soft-serve ice cream cones) we made our way over to the Oyu-no-Hana torii gate. It's a bit funny because you have to cross through a parking lot and by some industrial buildings to get there, but then it's an open stretch of walk between rice fields toward the enormous gate: a long approach so you can really appreciate the enormity of it.

Side view of the outer shrine

The outer shrine at Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine

Fountain with ladles for ablutions

Reid and Gandalf before we entered the Kumano Hongu Taisha

A view of Kumano Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine through the gate

Yatagarasu and Year of the rooster banners at an outer shrine

Leaving Kumano Hongu Taisha (down the steps toward the front gate)

Standing at the front gate of Kumano Hongu Taisha

Approaching the main gate

The newly planted rice fields along the approach

Standing beneath the great gate

After Hongu Taisha our travels for the day were not yet finished. We still had to walk to Yunomine, a small hot-spring town some odd kilometres (up and over a mountain) away. This section of trail was difficult. As I wrote in my journal at the end of the day, it completely devastated us. It was short but so steep and after walking so much already, it was nearly too much for us. But, we made it! Thank goodness for the muesli bars we brought from Australia (and stopping for that mikan orange soft cream in Hongu.)

The trail to Yunomine

Late afternoon trees

The quaint little town of Yunomine Onsen

The town of Yunomine Onsen is thought to be the oldest onsen in Japan at about 1,800 years and was a place of rest and rejuvenation for pilgrims along the Kumano Kodo. You can actually take a bath in the original historic hot spring with a reservation and a fee of about 300 yen. We had a look while it was unoccupied and it was actually much smaller than I expected: just big enough for two people! Another thing Yunomine Onsen is famous for is big pools down by the river collecting the hot spring water. You can buy a bag of eggs and hard-boil them yourself for fun, and the local women can be seen going down to cook vegetables in the boiling water.

The hot spring river running through Yunomine Onsen.
(The wooden structure under the light is around the hot water pool for cooking.)

Yunomine Iseya, the onsen hotel where we stayed.

The local Buddhist temple the following morning before we headed out.

Leaving Yunomine Onsen. I am curious why the river
has the evenly spaced stones set through it.

Leaving Yunomine Onsen town the next morning, we took a detour and a shortcut. Our detour was to walk to the town of Kawayu Onsen, another onsen town not too far away. This Kawayu Onsen town is quite famous for the local hotels making small rock dams in the river to form natural hot springs. We had heard about Kawayu Onsen some time ago, actually-- having visited the other (much less famous) Kawayu Onsen in Hokkaido, when researching that trip we kept getting information about the Kawayu Onsen in Wakayama. We never expected back then that we might someday visit the other Kawayu Onsen, so when we came so close we thought we'd better make the trip.

Shortcut

Old bridge

Detour through the town of Kawayu Onsen

Man-made hot spring pools in the river

The wide river plain. The river has been dammed upstream

Back on the Kumano Kodo trail - Nakahechi route

I was pretty excited to see callistemons in full bloom. Had we never
moved to Australia I would have thought "what amazing plants we saw in Japan!"
not knowing they were Australian natives.

Back up the mountain trail

Fern undergrowth

The Kumano Kodo Kohechi route runs from Koyasan to Hongu Taisha, so from Yunomine we started walking the Nakahechi route toward the two final Kumano Grand Shrines, Nachi Taisha and Hayatama Taisha. Overall this day was much easier than any of our other hiking days along the Kohechi. The biggest difference between the Kohechi route and Nakahechi was that there were more hikers along the Nakahechi, and mostly foreign tourists. It was quite the surprise that first morning to stop to take a breather and have a water break only to see a stream of people come up behind us. The other tourists seemed to be mostly Australian, although we did hear French and Italian. It was a bit funny to come up to the Hyakken-gura Lookout (approximately the midway point of the hike) only to see the Australian kids (probably in their 20s) doing yoga poses on the rocks for their social media outlet of choice..

Offerings on a stone along the trail

More offerings along the trail

A peaceful clearing to sit and have a rest

Ojizo-sama

Stopped for lunch at Hyakken-gura Lookout

The view from Hyakken-gura Lookout

The Hyakken-gura Lookout is a panoramic view out toward the "3600 peaks of Kumano", a local expression for the point. We stopped and ate our bento packed lunches, waiting for the other tourists' photo sessions to end, before enjoying the view as pilgrims have been doing for over one thousand years.

3,600 peaks of Kumano

It was an amazing view!

Once again we began our descent. The downward section of trail has haiku poem markers along the way. Passing one such marker we stopped and asked a trio of Japanese men if they could explain the haiku to us, which led to an animated discussion of the meaning of the archaic poem. While the literal meaning itself was not difficult to comprehend there were subtle interpretations of the poem to which they did not agree. It was really interesting to learn and to be included in such a discussion. Definitely one of the highlights of the day!

Through the tall cedars

Ojizo-sama

"Toward both distant mountain paths and late sakura cherry blossoms"

The remains of Sakura-chaya Teahouse, which served pilgrims until the early 20th century.

Another haiku monument with stones stacked on top

Upon our arrival to the valley we had a quick walk into the nearby village of Koguchi, even though we would be spending the night in the next village over. (As it happens, there are only two minshuku inns in Koguchi which accommodate four persons each, and both had been booked when we made our calls. There were other higher-end hot spring hotels outside of town but it was outside our budget.) We caught a ride to the small town of Kumanogawa where we stayed at the Sansaro Cafe, a room rental booked through airbnb. It was a wonderful stay: delicious food cooked by our hostess, a comfortable room, and a five-minute walk to one of the nicest public hot spring onsen we would visit on our whole trip.

Unfortunately, our stay there was clouded by the fact that the following day was forecast for rain. The stone steps of the trail were slippery enough when dry, and upon a strong recommendation from our hostess Fukami-san we decided not to complete the last section of our walk and to take the bus instead. It was a difficult decision. While it was the rational thing to do, the thought of not finishing the walk left us with an incomplete feeling, even though if we took the bus we would have more time to see the sights in Nachi and Shingu (and not to mention it would be safe, as Fukami-san had known someone who broke their leg while on that particular section of trail and we didn't want to take any chances.) So the next morning we left Sansaro Cafe in the rain, catching the 7:30am bus that would take us to Shingu.