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Yoshino Kumano NP, Wakayama
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Furigase Bridge marked the boundary between everyday life and sacred Nachi. Pilgrims had to dismount and continue on foot; meat was forbidden beyond it, and a historic pilgrimage painting shows travelers eating before they crossed.
Daimonzaka means “Great Gate Slope,” named for a gate once standing at its upper end. The gate was later moved and now serves as the entrance gate of Seiganto-ji Temple.
In 1109, court noble Fujiwara no Munetada recorded climbing toward Nachi’s Great Gate; a 1299 illustrated scroll later showed a stone-paved approach there. The route’s story reaches back centuries.
Tafuke-oji, whose stone marker stands beside the path, was the final Oji shrine pilgrims passed before reaching Nachi. It was one of nearly 100 small shrines that once lined the pilgrimage routes.
A former checkpoint on Daimonzaka charged pilgrims 11 mon. A local historical guide compares it with familiar costs: more than a public bath, but less than a bowl of soba.
Beyond the entrance, more than 190 trees—including cedar, cypress and camphor—line about 600 meters of the old approach. The shrine protects this avenue, which is designated Wakayama Prefectural cultural property.
The entrance’s paired giants are called Meoto Sugi, or “Husband-and-Wife Cedars.” Local tradition says Minamoto no Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura shogunate, donated them.
Daimonzaka’s Meoto Sugi have a modern romantic story too: by 2016, the founder of Daimonzaka Chaya had witnessed 23 public wedding ceremonies connected with the teahouse.
The teahouse’s costume experience began in 1999, when former teacher Miyamoto Teruyo lent her family home for a local festival. She kept welcoming pilgrims afterward, including with tea grown by her own family.
Each October, the “Again: Kumano Pilgrimage” procession climbs from Daimonzaka toward the shrine and temple in period costume, recreating the lively pilgrimage scene of the late Heian period.
In August 1986, the town’s Daimonzaka Line was selected for Japan’s “100 Roads”—a distinction for the municipal road associated with this celebrated pilgrimage approach.
