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Yoshino Kumano NP, Mie
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Local tradition traces Kumano's grand fireworks to offerings for the newly deceased at their first Obon: sparks from simple fireworks were used to burn lanterns. The modern festival still includes lantern burning and memorial fireworks.
Nearby, Hana-no-Iwaya Shrine's twice-yearly rite draws a 170-m sacred rope from its 45-m rock, across the road and Shichiri Mihama to the water’s edge—the beach is part of the ceremony, not just its view.
A 250-kg, 90-cm “three-shaku” shell bursts 400 m offshore into a flower 600 m across. Since 1994, it has been fired from a raft: beach erosion made launches from the waterline difficult.
In Mihama, one of the 3 towns along this coast, citrus is a year-round crop. Its standout “Aji Ichigo” satsuma is green-skinned yet sweet-tart, and is shipped among Honshu’s earliest mandarins of the season.
At the Kiho end of Shichiri Mihama, the Iida shore is an important loggerhead turtle nesting area. In 1988, Kiho adopted Japan’s first town turtle-protection ordinance; seasonal monitors still patrol and invite volunteers to help.
An illustrated pilgrimage guide singled out Shichiri Mihama as the journey’s finest scenic spot, even depicting travelers walking its shore toward Shingu. Today, the beach is part of the UNESCO-listed pilgrimage property; an 18-km section is a national Historic Site.
Many beach pebbles began as igneous and sedimentary rocks in the upper Kumano River basin. River and surf rounded them; along the coast, the stones become finer with distance from the river mouth—a natural sorting conveyor.
The colorful “Mihama stones” support a small local craft trade: only permit-holding pickers gather them, by hand. The white kind, called Shiranachi, has long been prized as premium gravel for gardens.
Mie’s heritage record says that in 1619 a lord brought black-pine seedlings from Hamamatsu to create a windbreak-lined pilgrim path. The work continues: in 2026, 130 volunteers planted 240 disease-resistant pines.
Every May, hundreds of carp streamers fly above Shichiri Mihama, turning the long shoreline into a seasonal celebration. The display is a local wish for children’s healthy growth and a welcome for visitors.
