Visiting the primeval origin of nature worship

According to the latest research, the massive rocks found in the southern part of the Kii Peninsula are traces of a giant caldera eruption 14 million years ago. From time immemorial, the Japanese have worshiped the rich nature of the archipelago as the source of the universe and life in all phenomena. Shinto is a religion in which nature is recognized as a deity. After the complex system of Buddhism was brought from China, the spirit of reverence for nature was reorganized into its complex structure. In Kumano, we can find the primordial landscape on which this faith in nature is based. （⑨･④･⑨）

It is assumed that exposures of igneous rocks that have cooled and hardened as magma rises from eruptions form a circular dike along the outer ring of the caldera explosion. One part of that, the Kozagawa monolith, is a huge rock 100m high and 500m wide. Hashigui-iwa, near Shionomisaki, is also a hardened igneous rock body on the surface, a hard rock that doesn’t move even when buffeted by typhoons. When face to face with the majesty of nature that transcends the scale of mankind, people must have felt the throb of a power surpassing human wisdom. （①･①･②）

It feels as if the breathing of this land of deep forests, where Minakata Kumagusu, a unique personage known as Japan’s first environmentalist, studied slime mold, is passed down here. In the Nanki area, in the southern part of the Kii Peninsula, there are towns dotted along the seashore, and highways run along the sea, but as soon as you head toward the mountains, you encounter deep forests. All over the mountains of the Kumano Region are exposed megaliths and waterfalls that have been designated as sacred ground, and the desire to make pilgrimages to them has resulted in the creation of roads leading through the steep mountain terrain. The roads that were created for visitors to the sacred sites and were travelled on foot by shugenja (mountain ascetics) are registered as a World Heritage Site as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, where Shintoism, Buddhism and mountain worship converge. （⑥･⑦･⑧）

Nachi Falls, a sacred place that attracts both Shintoism and mountain worship, is created by a colossal rock exposed on the surface of the earth. Igneous rock is hard, so because it is not easily eroded by wind, rain or the flow of rivers, the soil surrounding it wears away, and in the Kumano region a great number of waterfalls have come to be. The Nachi Waterfall, with a drop of 133 meters, emerges from a sheer cliff as three cascading waterfalls, then falls in a single ray of light, hitting the undulating rock surface on the way and releasing a cloud of water. The view inspires flashes of imagination, and is truly divine. （⑦）

In addition to rocks that plunge steeply into the sea and the oddly shaped rocks carved by the waves, the far-reaching scenery of the Kumano area, its precipitous mountains clad with broadleaved evergreen forests, has a unique aura. The Dorokyo Gorge, located in the outer ring of the caldera on the upper reaches of the Kumano River, is a place where sedimentary rocks have been exposed and eroded by wind, rain and the river, creating a fantastic view of the riverbank. The clear green surface of the Kitayama River, a tributary of the Kumano River, is also beautiful. Surrounded by the majesty of nature, one feels pious, as if purified. （⑩）

I saw a sign on a building on the steep cliffs of Dorokyo Gorge that reads “Dorokyo Hotel”. At first glance, the delicate wooden structure didn't look like a hotel, but apparently it was once, and now operates as a cafe. A corridor-like bridge runs along the cliff to an annex that’s built as if embedded in the cliff face, but it is said to be damaged, and no longer in use. The hotel probably had the best view of Dorokyo, and I was thrilled to imagine the magnificent view of the gorge from this hotel. （⑩）

I was guided to this place by Mr. Naoya Fukumura, a researcher at the Nanki-Kumano Geopark Center, and Mr. Keishi Jinbo, a guide. Both are well versed in geology and Kumano culture. The route led by these two men, both good walkers, was a series of ascents and descents that made my legs and back scream. After seeing nothing but huge rocks for a while, a view of moray eels hanging to dry in the sun, near a fishing port in Kushimoto, explained to me as a local custom, was a soothing sight, somehow. From the lighthouse at Cape Shionomisaki, the southernmost point of Honshu, the sea looked as black as the name of the current there implies: Kuroshio (literally, “black tide”).

2021.2.1