From Ise Jingu to Mount Koya, the Kumano Kodo Iseji Route is more than a trail—it’s a sequence of encounters with nature, belief, and stillness.
At Magose Pass, or along the coast near Hananoiwaya Shrine and Shichiri Mihama, myth and landscapes seem to overlap.
On the Kumano River, the boat becomes your guide, the river your path, and each motion a quiet meditation.
As you visit the three great shrines of Kumano and continue toward Mount Koya, the walking feels less like travel and more like returning—though to where may be a question only the path can answer.
Some forms of insight ask for silence. These trails offer it freely.
From Ise Jingu to Mount Koya, the Kumano Kodo Iseji Route is more than a trail—it’s a sequence of encounters with nature, belief, and stillness.
At Magose Pass, or along the coast near Hananoiwaya Shrine and Shichiri Mihama, myth and landscapes seem to overlap.
On the Kumano River, the boat becomes your guide, the river your path, and each motion a quiet meditation.
As you visit the three great shrines of Kumano and continue toward Mount Koya, the walking feels less like travel and more like returning—though to where may be a question only the path can answer.
Some forms of insight ask for silence. These trails offer it freely.
Ise JinguThe starting point of the pilgrimage is dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun deity. Not just a shrine, but a spiritual compass for many.
Iseji Route – Matsumoto-toge PassA symbolic passage where moss-covered stone paths wind through forest and descend toward the sea—a landscape of contrasts and quiet transitions.
Kumano River Boat RideA stretch once traveled not on foot, but by water. The slow glide downriver revives a ritual pace, offering a different kind of silence.
Pilgrimage to the Kumano SanzanThe spiritual core of the Kumano faith. Moving between these three shrines becomes less about distance and more about the inward shift that happens along the way.
Mount KoyaThe path concludes where Shingon Buddhism took root—on a mountain where stillness carries weight. Renewal, here, is not a metaphor.
