Kumano is located in the southern part of Kansai's Kii Peninsula, the largest peninsula in Japan. The kuma in Kumano means "remote, concealed area," and the name as a whole connotes a "region in which the gods dwell and spirits are secluded." In ancient times, the area was widely reputed to be the "Pure Land" of Pure Land Buddhism. Once known as Muro-gun, Kinokuni, in the Meiji Period, Kumano was divided along the Kumano River into west (Wakayama Prefecture) and east (Mie Prefecture), and established as a cultural zone.


In this month's On-site Report, we visit the Kumano Nachi area and explore the uniquely Japanese culture, rooted in the performing arts and Shinto rituals, that has evolved out of local history and tradition there.


Nachi has long been renowned for Nachi Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in Japan, and the Nachi Fire Festival, held every July, but the area began receiving even more attention after it was designated as a World Heritage Site, collectively known as "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range," in July 2004. This designation centered on the Kumano Kodo, a pilgrimage path leading to Kumano Nachi Shrine. The area can be reached from either Osaka or Nagoya in about three hours using JR's limited-express train service. Though today it might seem far from the economic and cultural center of Kansai, Kumano was once brimming with the latest information and bustling with so many people that it came to be known for its "pilgrimage of ants." It was a destination for people and culture from all over the country, many of whom arrived by way of the Black Current.


According to one Kumano Nachi Shrine legend, "When Emperor Jinmu landed at 'Nishikiura,' on the coast of Nachi via the Kumano Sea, he saw a light shining down from the mountains of Nachi and after finding a great falls there, which came to be venerating as a god, was given safe passage to Yamato by a guardian deity, an three-legged crow [yatagarasu]."


In ancient Japan, natural entities such as rocks, waterfalls, mountains, and forests, were worshipped as objects inhabited by a divine presence. The waterfall at Nachi was also the object of such primeval religious faith, but personal gods such as Onamuchi-no-mikoto (or Okuninushi) and Musubi-no-kami (or Izanami-no-mikoto) were also venerated and a shrine dedicated to them came to be built there. This may also be linked to the legend of Emperor Jinmu's conquest of the east and the passage of the Yamato people was triggered by the gods' emergence from Hyuga (present-day Miyazaki Prefecture) in southern Kyushu.


In addition, according to a venerable tale related to Seiganto-ji, a temple in Nachi, when the Indian Buddhist priest Ragyo-shonin (lit., "naked saint"), who was washed ashore from the Kumano Sea during Emperor Nintoku's reign in the fourth century, underwent ascetic training in Nachi Falls, he discovered a manifestation of Avalokitesvara in the basin of the falls, and established a temple on the site by enshrining a thatched hut there. Though clearly little more than a legend, the idea that Buddhism was transmitted to the area from India even before the religious tradition was adopted by the Yamato Dynasty in the sixth century is an apt reflection of the region's function as a gateway to the outside world.

Kumano Nachi Shrine and Seiganto-ji stand side-by-side on a site that affords a view of the entire falls, and the columns and roofs of the two buildings were designed to be the same height. Though it might seem strange that facilities for two different religions were erected in such close proximity to each other, until the Edo Period, this was a common sight throughout Japan. Until that time, this shrine and temple were known as Nachi Gongen, and viewed as a single entity. The principle deity, Musubi-no-kami, is thought to have been represented in temporary form as the thousand-armed bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who promised to provide divine protection in the material world. With the gongen as a place where a Buddhist deity was transformed into a Japanese Shinto god, one might consider the two as one and the same, as Japanese people restructured Shinto and Buddhism into a single belief system - or Shinto-Buddhist syncretism.


As Nachi was home to many waterfalls, Nachi Falls among them, it was originally the site of ascetic practice associated with mountain worship, but at the end of the eleventh century, Buddhist and Shinto were assimilated into a single belief system, which came to be known as the Kumano Sanzan (Three Shrines of Kumano), and Kumano Nachi prospered as a sacred site associated with the goddess Kannon.


In ancient Japan, when new cultural information was transmitted from the Asian mainland, the previously existing culture was rarely ever expelled. As ethnic and religious culture wasn't conveyed in an invasive or destructive form, there was a continual process of redaction in which the old and the new were combined, juxtaposed, and unified, eventually leading to a distinctive Japanese culture.


However, with the advent of the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century came large-scale cultural destruction. Due to an edict issued at the time to forcibly separate Buddhism and Shinto, syncretism was abolished and a national movement to dilute and discard Buddhism gained momentum, leading to the destruction of many temples and Buddhist statutes. Nachi Gongen was no exception, and after its name was changed to Nachi Shrine in 1871, the facility became a Shinto place of worship without any suggestion of Buddhism or mountain asceticism. At that point, the majority of the Buddhist facilities, which at their peak had included seven temples and 36 priests, with the exception of a Nyorindo, were destroyed and the remaining Buddhist statues and tools were relocated to Fudarakusan-ji. Later, in 1874, according to the wishes of people living in the mountain there, Nyorindo was separated from the shrine and rebuilt as a Tendai temple that was dubbed "Seiganto-ji."

Nachi Dengaku is presented as part of the Nachi Fire Festival that is held annually at Kumano Nachi Shrine on July 14. Dengaku is said to have its roots in sangaku, a popular form of theatre that originated in China and was transmitted to Japan in the Nara Period. As an archetypal Japanese civil performing art, dengaku enjoyed great popularity in medieval times, but was later merged with sarugaku and developed into noh theatre until dengaku itself completely disappeared from the stage. Today, the form only survives as part of the Shinto rituals that are presented at shrines and temples.


Of these, Nachi Dengaku, transmitted to Nachi in 1403, is said to be the most original form of the tradition. Thought to have first been introduced to the area when the Buddhist priests Sosho and Horin were asked to come from Kyoto to teach the tradition, the style was enthusiastically adopted and has survived to this day. As performing arts around the country continue to undergo simplification, the diverse and refined movements of Nachi Dengaku are notable for being faithfully maintained by a preservation society. In 1976, the form was designated as the nation's first Significant Intangible Folk Cultural Asset and in 2009 was selected as a candidate for UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage.


Dengaku is presented twice annually, on the day before and the day of the Nachi Fire Festival. The latter event attracts a large number of sightseers, while the former is a smaller affair that is primarily attended by local residents.


A performance of dengaku typically begins on a temporary stage erected on the shrine grounds after a group of children have given a performance of Yamato dance. Accompanied by the relaxing tones of a flute and the percussive beat of the binzasara and shimedaiko, eight dancers perform a series of elegant steps. The dance, representing agricultural activities such as rice-planting and -harvesting, includes a great deal of dynamism in its leisurely movements. In the final sequence, the shiteten dance, the monotonous sound of the flute changes and to the beat of the strong, speedy shimedaiko, the dance moves into an uptempo phase as the 40-minute performance comes to a close.

The actual festival is held on July 14. Taking place before the end of the rainy season, the event often unfolds in the rain, but this year the festival was blessed with clear skies.


Also known as the "Fan Ceremony," in the Nachi Fire Festival, the twelve divine spirits of Kumano Gongen make an annual transformation into six-meter-tall fan-shaped portable shrines, symbolizing the falls, and return to Nachi Falls, where they were enshrined in ancient times, as part of a Shinto regeneration ceremony (a regularly held event). In this ritual, one sees a magnificent tale of nature worship (animism), mountain asceticism, and Shinto-Buddhist syncretism as a primal religious tradition.


At two in the afternoon, the twelve portable shrines, topped with fans depicting horses, are shaken as they are carried from the mountain where Nachi Shrine stands along the approach toward the source of Nachi Falls. As if to greet the shrines, twelve parishioners clad in white depart from Hiro Shrine, and as they call out in high-spirited cries carry lit torches. The sight of the parishioners marching up the stones steps as they shoulder the huge torches, made of bundled cypress scraps and weighing up to 50 kilos, is a true spectacle. Moving upward in twos as they shout, "Hiriya! Hiriya! Hiriya!," one person holds water in his mouth, splashing and spraying it to prevent their bodies from being burned by falling embers. Dripping with sweat, there is something ghastly about the men's appearance as they shout and run. The meaning of the festival, which forces people to take a firm look at their lives, is conveyed to bystanders through the tension of coming face to face with danger.


Then, after a veneration ritual involving the fan-shaped portable shrines that is conducted in the plaza in front of the falls, another ceremony there, a harvest ritual, a performance of Nachi dance and another Shinto rite to the falls, the event concludes with a ceremony in which the portable shrines are returned to the main shrine. At the root of the Nachi Fire Festival is a prayer for sunshine, and sacred fire and water.

Beside Nachi Station, on the JR Kisei Main Line, stands Fudarakusan-ji, which is also registered as part of the "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range" World Heritage. This temple, said to have been founded by the Indian priest Ragyo-shonin, is also known for the Fudaraku Crossing.


In ancient Sanskrit, Fudaraku was pronounced "Potalaka" and literally meant the "Pure Land of Kannon"; or in other words, a world without desire or suffering in which the Buddha dwells. In medieval Japan, Fudaraku was believed to be located in the distant South Ocean, and voyages in which people set off to find the mythical land were called "Fudaraku Crossings." To ensure that no one would sneak out in the middle of a voyage, all of the entrances and exits in the houseboats were nailed shut, as the passengers renounced the world and left their fate to the Black Current. It is said that parties of 25 believers would depart from the coast of Nachi for Fudaraku.


The Fudaraku Crossings are thought to be a link between the ancient Japanese conception of the after world in which the spirit returns to an eternal world far off in the sea and the Buddhist worship of Kannon. And this act of renouncing the world is evidence of the fact that the Nachi area was believed to be linked to the outside world that lay beyond the sea.

Japanese Cultural Redaction in Kumano Nachi

The cultural legacy and historical traditions of the Kumano Nachi area can be viewed in parallel to the cultural legacy and historical traditions of Japan as a whole. While maintaining links with the outside world, as the region was isolated by the sea, it was never invaded. It was in this environment that a newly conveyed culture influenced and assimilated with a previously existing one in an ongoing process that ultimately maintained the diversity of both elements. The act of layering and fostering culture over a period of time could also been seen as the basis for the birth and transmission of a unique Japanese culture.


Beginning in the Meiji Period, Japan turned not to Asia, but to the West as a model, and then after World War II, having been strongly influenced by America, underwent a major shift in lifestyle. With the sudden influx of a new foreign culture, Japanese people lost sight of their own cultural identity, and many of the cultural traditions that were cultivated over a long period have now been lost.


In the historical sites and traditional performing arts and rituals that survive in Kumano Nachi, it is possible to discover many traces of the blend of elements that were combined to create a country that remains highly unique. And in attempting to generate new and original culture, it is possible to find a hint in the skillful method of combining and merging new and old elements that is so evident in the area.

In preparing this article, the author consulted Yamamoto Shigeo, who as the head of the Cultural Assets section of the Shingu Municipal Board of Education, has studied and surveyed Kumano's religious practices and the Kumano Kodo for many years. As a researcher, he has published numerous essays on religious practices and mountain asceticism in the area, and is particularly knowledgeable about stoneworks, old maps, and old roads in Kumano. In addition, having put considerable effort into pushing for the region's designation as a World Heritage Site and establishing the International Kumano Academic Society, he has had the opportunity to deliver many speeches about Kumano over the last several years. Of these, a demonstration of Kumano mandala-painting by a woman dressed as a Buddhist nun has been particularly well received. Yamamoto currently serves as a coordinator for the Kumano Sanzan Committee, director of the International Kumano Academic Society and the Kumano Historical Research Society, and trustee of the Japan Mountain Asceticism Society.