1 WALKING THE KUMANO KODO
JAPAN
Follow the ancient pilgrimage path that cuts through the silent, mossy mountains of Kii, south of Kyoto, to discover Shinto shrines, steaming hot springs and sacred waterfalls — a landscape where nature, body and spirit commune in harmony. Words: Aaron Millar
The Shugendo monk stands on the last summit ridge of the Kumano Kodo and blows his Hora conch shell to the wilds. He’s dressed in immaculate white Suzukaki robes, straw sandals and a woven cypress Minachi-gasa hat. The sound is earthy, like an animal call, but hollow, too, like wind passing through the forest. He’s a Yamabushi, a holy man of the mountains. The sound lasts only an instant, but I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.
I’m here to walk the Kumano Kodo, a 54-mile path that cuts through the Kii Mountains of Japan, south of Kyoto. This network of pilgrimage trails has been walked for thousands of years, by emperors and peasants alike, to make offerings at the three Grand Shrines of Hongu, Hatayama, and Nachi along the way.
But this isn’t your average boots-in-the-dirt hike. This is the land of Shugendo, an ancient offset of Buddhism which holds that enlightenment is to be found through physical excursion in the natural world.
“You do the training,” Ryoei Takagi, a Shugendo master, would later tell me, “until nature and your body and your heart are all mixed together into the same thing.” And when that happens, practitioners believe, you’ll also be granted magical powers.
This story is from the July - August 2021 edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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This story is from the July - August 2021 edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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