The is a pilgrimage route on the

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan and is located within the Kansai region. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. The peninsula has long been a sacred place in Buddhism, Shinto, and Shugendo, and many people wou ...

in the

Kansai region The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...

of Japan. It begins in Yanagi-no-shuku, a former ferry station on the

Yoshino River The Yoshino River (吉野川 ''Yoshino-gawa'') is a river on the island of Shikoku, Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . It is the second longest river in Shikoku (slightly shorter than the Shimanto), and is the only river whose watershe ...

Nara prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

, leads through the 1200-1900 meter Ōmine mountain region of Yoshino and Kumano in

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

and ends after about 170 kilometers at the Kumano Hongū Taisha.

Overview

According to tradition, the Ōmine Okugakemichi was established as a training ground for

Shugendō is a syncretic Esoteric Buddhist religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn prim ...

, a

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...

religion incorporating aspects of

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

esoteric Buddhism ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...

and traditional Japanese

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

,Blacker, Carmen. ''The Catalpa Bow''. 2nd ed. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1986. by the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

mystic En no Gyōja. It connects Kimpusen-ji in Yoshino district,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

with the Kumano Sanzan in southern

. The route is very rugged and isolated, with a number of demanding sections up to narrow paths on steep slopes and steep climbs on cliffs.

Mount Ōmine , is a sacred mountain in Nara, Japan, famous for its three tests of courage. Officially known as , it is more popularly known as Mount Ōmine due to its prominence in the Ōmine mountain range. It is located in Yoshino-Kumano National Park in ...

in the route's name is a specific holy mountain, but originally, the term referred to all of the Yoshino Mountains along the route. Believers took either Kumano or Yoshino as a starting point, depending on their religious orientation. The latter direction has dominated since the Edo period. Along the route are 75 spiritual places called ''nabiki'' (靡) in caves, on rocks, at waterfalls, on mountain peaks, etc. are used for prayer or for spiritual exercises. For religious reasons, women have been forbidden to travel most of the route, and Mount Ōmine remains closed to women to this date. The path takes several days to complete, and is mostly wilderness with no settlements, and few possibilities to turn off the path once started. During the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Kishū Domain The Kishū Domain (紀州藩, Kishū-han), also referred to as Kii Domain or Wakayama Domain, was a feudal domain in Kii Province, Japan. This domain encompassed regions in present-day Wakayama and southern Mie Prefecture, Mie prefectures and ...

controlled most of the territory the path traversed, and often viewed Shugendō monks with suspicion. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, Shugendō faced hostility from the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

's separation of Buddhism and Shinto policies, and large portions of the path were lost or reverted to wilderness. In 1936, the area became part of the Yoshino-Kumano National Park, and from the 1980s, amateur historians and hiking groups have worked to restore the trail and to build mountain shelters for hikers and modern Shugendō followers attempting the trail. In 2002, the trail was designated as a National Historic Site, and it was included within the

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Kii Peninsula in Japan. Selection criteria The locations and paths for this heritage site were based on their historical and modern im ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

since 2004.

Gallery

Okunosenbon Yoshino Nara01n4272.jpg, A signpost in Oku-Senbon, Yoshinoyama (Omine Okugando continues from the front to the left, and the right is a branch toward Hyakukaidake) Yanagi-no-watashi (lantern) 01.jpg, Yanagi-no-watashi Omine Okugake-michi(Nabiki №47 Vertical climbing point).jpg, No.47 Zenkisan (route is up the slope, assisted by rope)

The 75 ''Nabiki''

#Yanagi-no-shuku () #Jōrokusan () # Yoshinosan () # Mikumari Jinja () #Kinpujinja () #Aizen-no-shuku () #Nizō-no-shuku () #Jōshinmon () #Sanjōgatake () #Ozasa-no-shuku () #Amidagamori () #Waki-no-shuku () #Fugendake () #Shō-no-iwaya () #Mirokudake () #Chigodomari () #Shichiyōdake () #Gyōjagaeri () #Ichi-no-tawa () #Ishiyasumi-no-shuku () #Kōbase-no-shuku () #Misen () #Chōsengatake () #Furuimajuku () #Hakkyōgatake () #Myōjōgatake() #Kiku-no-iwaya () #Zenji-no-mori () #Goko-no-mine () #Fune-no-tawa () #Shichimensan () #Yōji-no-shuku () #Busshōgatake () #Kujakudake () #Kūhachidake () #Shakagatake () #Totsumon () #Jinsen-no-shuku () #Shōten-no-mori () #Gokakusen () #Dainichidake () #Senjudake () #Futatsuiwa () #Sobakusadake () #Koike-no-shuku () #Chigusadake () #Zenkisan () #Zenkisanjūtaki () #Okumoridake () #Komoridake () #Hannyadake () #Nehandake () #Kenkōmon () #Jikyō-no-shuku () #Heiji-no-shuku () #Nuta-no-juku () #Gyōsendake () #Kasasuteyama () #Yarigatake () #Shia-no-shuku () #Kikugaike () #Ogamikaeshi () #Kōshōzan () #Furuya-no-shuku () #Nyoijugadake () #Tamakisan () #Mizunomi-no-shuku () #Kishi-no-shuku () #Godaisondake () #Kongōtawa () #Daigokudake () #Fukikoshiyama () #Shingū ( Kumano Hayatama Taisha) () #Nachisan ( Kumano Nachi Taisha) () # Hongūtaisha ()

Literature

* Morisawa Yoshinobu: Ōmine Okugakemichi 75 nabiki. Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2006 () ISBN 4-779-50084-2 * Shugendō shugyōtaikei hensaniinkai: Shugendō shugyōtaikei. Kokusho kankōkai, 1994 () ISBN 4-336-03411-7 * Swanson, Paul L.: Shugendō and the Yoshino-Kumano Pilgrimage - An Example of Mountain Pilgrimage. In: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 36, No. 1 (1981), S. 55–84.

External links

Wakayama Prefecture World Heritage Center
* ICOMOS (2004)
Advisory Body Evaluation.
Retrieved on 2009-07-27. * Agency for Cultural Affairs (2003)
''Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, and the Cultural Landscapes that Surround Them''
Retrieved on 2014-05-04. * Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in The Kii Mountain Range - UNESCO website (2004

Retrieved on 2018-11-4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Omine Okugakemichi Hiking trails in Japan Historic Sites of Japan Japanese pilgrimages Shugendō World Heritage Sites in Japan Tourist attractions in Nara Prefecture Tourist attractions in Wakayama Prefecture Tanabe, Wakayama Shingū, Wakayama