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Yoshino Kumano NP, Mie
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Osugidani supplied timber for Ise Shrine’s rebuilding, first recorded in 1629. Its last designation as a sacred timber mountain came in 1789; steep terrain and dwindling resources helped end the harvest, and much of the forest remained remarkably undisturbed.
Nanatsugama means “Seven Pots”: seven cascades and pools descend a total of about 80 m. Water wore away softer rock while harder layers remained, shaping this remarkable waterfall—one of Japan’s selected 100 best waterfalls.
Locals joke that it rains 35 days a month; the real total is still astonishing: 4,000–6,000 mm a year. Moist southeast winds from Kumano-nada bring rain to Odaigahara, helping sustain Osugidani’s lush forests.
The water flowing from Osugidani feeds the Miyagawa, where ayu sweetfish are part of local food culture. In Ōdai, they’re made into kanroni: sweet-salty simmered fish so tender that even the bones can be eaten.
Across this protected forest, elevation climbs from about 320 m to 1,695 m. That range carries you through very different woodland zones, from evergreen oak forests near the gorge to beech and subalpine conifer forests higher up.
At nearby Osugi Shrine, the sacred cedar rises about 40 m and measures 7.48 m around at chest height. Mie Prefecture designated it a natural monument in 1955; the shrine’s name means “great cedar shrine.”
Osugidani’s streams shelter the Odaigahara salamander, which can grow 16–20 cm long—the largest in its salamander family, according to the Forestry Agency. Mie Prefecture protects it as a natural monument.
Typhoon 21 in 2004 damaged 51 trail sections and 10 suspension bridges in Osugidani. Repairs took years, and the full route reopened in 2014—10 years after the storm.
The protected forest is home to two rodents that forestry officials describe as northern- and southern-associated species: yachi-nezumi and sumisunezumi. Their coexistence is one clue to the striking variety of habitats in these mountains.
