Kumano (Tanabe)

Kansai, Japan · Countryside / satoyama, Mountain

Tanabe is where you start walking the Kumano Kodo, the network of pilgrimage trails crossing the forested mountains of the Kii peninsula and twinned with the Camino de Santiago: anyone who has walked sections of both registers here as a Dual Pilgrim. Along the way is Yunomine, one of the oldest hot springs in Japan, with a wooden hut for two set in the stream whose water changes colour several times a day.

The essentials

Getting there

Train + bus — Train to Kii-Tanabe, then a bus to the pilgrimage trailheads

What it is genuinely strong in

🧭 Pilgrimage

Frequently asked questions about Kumano (Tanabe)

What to do in Kumano (Tanabe): 30 activities

• Kumano Kodo hiking section 4 h must-see

  A thousand-year-old pilgrimage route through mountain forests, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

• Yunomine Onsen 1.5 h must-see

  One of Japan's oldest hot springs, a traditional stop for pilgrims.

• Seiganto-ji and the Daimonzaka slope 2.5 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min

  Temple number one of the Saigoku pilgrimage, whose red pagoda against the waterfall is the iconic image of Kumano; you reach it up the 600 cobbled metres of Daimonzaka between eight-hundred-year-old cedars, and Heian-period costumes can be hired.

• Tsuboyu, the World Heritage bath 1 h

  A two-person wooden hut in the Yunomine stream: the only bath in the world inside a World Heritage property, with half-hour slots and water that changes colour several times a day.

• Dual Pilgrim credential with the Camino de Santiago 1 h

  The Kumano Kodo and the Camino de Santiago have been sister routes since 2015: anyone who has walked sections of both can register as a 'Dual Pilgrim' in Tanabe or Hongu and receives a pin, a certificate on washi paper and a drum ceremony.

• Kumano Hongu Grand Shrine 1.5 h

  One of the three grand shrines of Kumano, the main destination of the pilgrimage.

• Kumano river descent by traditional boat 2 h booking

  The only river section included in the World Heritage listing: imperial pilgrims travelled down from Hongu to Shingu this way in flat-bottomed boats, and it can still be done.

• Nachi Grand Shrine and Waterfall 2 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min

  One of Japan's tallest waterfalls, next to a Shinto shrine.

• Oto Matsuri at Kamikura Shrine (Shingu) 3 h Shingu · 100 min only 6 Feb

  A fire festival more than 1,400 years old, in which hundreds of men run down the stone stairway of Kamikura Shrine in Shingu carrying torches every February 6th.

• Oyunohara and the world's largest torii 1 h

  A torii 33.9 metres high, the largest in the world, marks the sandbank where the Hongu Grand Shrine stood until a flood destroyed it in 1889.

• The great Kumano fireworks: three-shaku shells bursting over the sea 4 h Ciudad de Kumano, MIE · 2 h only 17 August, according to the tourism association; only one year could be verified

  A warning first, because the name misleads: this is not in Wakayama but in the city of Kumano, in Mie prefecture, across the river beyond Shingu. It is some ten thousand shells over the shingle beach of Shichirimihama, and it has two set pieces you will not see anywhere else. One is the sanjakudama kaijo jibaku: three-shaku shells that burst on the water and open a circle about six hundred metres across; the two sources consulted disagree on whether they sit on a raft moored four hundred metres offshore or are tipped into the sea from two boats, so no side is taken here. The other is the Onigajo o-shikake, the finale fired against the rock face of Onigajo, whose roar comes back off the cliff. More than a hundred thousand people come. It did not begin as a show but as an offering to the dead at Obon, with lanterns burned on the beach, and that explains the date: the tourist association gives it as fixed on 17 August, though only one year could be verified. Bad weather or a heavy sea pushes it back, and in 2026 three reserve dates were set later in August. It is five minutes on foot from Kumano-shi station, there is paid seating and parking is charged by the day.

• Ajikoji, the izakaya alley 2.5 h

  More than two hundred taverns in a few blocks beside Tanabe station: the only real nightlife in the whole Kodo region.

• Bathing in the Bokido sea cave 1.5 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min

  A thermal bath inside a natural cave open to the Pacific in Katsuura, with the waves breaking a few metres away.

• Katsuura tuna auction 1.5 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min

  Japan's largest fresh tuna port holds its auction at seven in the morning and it can be watched from a glassed-in gallery, with no prior registration.

• Kawayu river onsen 1 h

  Hot spring water that bubbles up directly from the riverbed — you can dig your own bath.

• Kumano Hayatama Taisha 1 h Shingu · 100 min

  The third of the three grand shrines of the Kumano Sanzan, located in Shingu beside the Kumano River, home to a sacred gingko tree more than 800 years old.

• Mehari-zushi and sanma-zushi 1 h

  The classic pilgrim's lunchbox: rice balls wrapped in pickled mustard leaf, and pressed saury sushi, both meant to be eaten on the trail.

• Nachi no Ogi Matsuri, the fire festival 3 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min only 14 Jul

  On July 14, twelve fan-shaped mikoshi six metres tall are purified with fifty-kilo torches on the stairway to Nachi Falls.

• Ogumotori-goe, the hardest stretch of the Kodo 8 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min

  Fourteen kilometres and 1,260 metres of ascent between Koguchi and Nachi, with a climb the pilgrims named 'the body-breaker'. Only for people in good shape and starting early.

• Ryujin Onsen 2 h

  Considered one of Japan's three best hot springs for skin-nourishing properties, in a mountain village within Tanabe municipality beside the Hidaka River.

• The ume plum landscape of Minabe-Tanabe 2 h

  Recognised by the FAO as a globally important agricultural heritage system: plum trees, oak woods for charcoal and pollinating bees working as a single system for centuries. In February the blossom covers everything in white, and there are plum liqueur producers.

• Cape Tenjinzaki 2 h

  A coastal reserve of volcanic rock that local residents bought themselves to keep it from being developed, with trails along the sea and very few people.

• Cooking eggs in the Yunomine spring 0.5 h

  At the village spring they sell net bags of eggs and vegetables to cook yourself in the boiling water, as everyone there does.

• Fudarakusan-ji and the boats without oars 1 h Nachikatsuura · 85 min

  This is where the monks set sail who had themselves sealed inside a boat with no oars, bound for the Pure Land to the south; more than twenty cases are documented up to 1722, and there is a replica of the boat in the grounds.

• Kishu binchotan white charcoal 1 h

  Charcoal fired at more than a thousand degrees until it turns white and as hard as metal, the most prized in Japan for grilling; there is a centre devoted to it in Tanabe.

• Log raft descent of the Kitayama river 2.5 h booking Kitayama · 90 min

  From May to September the gorge is run aboard a raft of lashed logs, reviving the trade of the river's old timbermen.

• Museum of the founder of aikido 1 h

  Morihei Ueshiba, creator of aikido, was born in Tanabe; there is a free museum in the municipal sports centre, and his grave draws practitioners from around the world.

• Takahara, the village in the mist 1.5 h

  The first halt on the Kodo out of Takijiri, a hillside village where the mist stays caught in the valley first thing in the morning.

• The Kohechi and Ohechi routes of the Kodo 8 h

  The Kohechi links Koyasan with Hongu over seventy kilometres and three passes above a thousand metres; the Ohechi follows the coast. Both are far more solitary than the usual Nakahechi.

• Tokei Shrine in Tanabe 1 h

  World Heritage since 2016: legend places here the cockfight that decided which side Kumano would take in the Genpei War, and here the warrior monk Benkei was born.

What only happens on specific dates

• Oto Matsuri at Kamikura Shrine (Shingu) 6 Feb
• Nachi no Ogi Matsuri, the fire festival 14 Jul
• The great Kumano fireworks: three-shaku shells bursting over the sea 17 August, according to the tourism association; only one year could be verified

Ready-made routes through Kumano (Tanabe)

Chains well with

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