Kumano Nachi Taisha FμίqεΠ
Kumano Nachi Taisha is a Shinto shrine located halfway up Nachi Mountain, about 350 meters above sea level. It has its religious origin in the ancient nature worship of Nachi-no-Otaki. At 133 meters high and 13 meters wide, it is the tallest waterfall in Japan and can been seen from far out on the Pacific Ocean. Nachi-no-Otakifs water source is the surrounding broad-leaf evergreen primeval forest. It is a sanctuary of Kumano Nachi Taisha and thus has been protected since ancient times and is used for ascetic training by mountain monks who practice Shugendo, a mixed religion of foreign and indigenous beliefs. Nachi-no-Hi Matsuri takes place at the base of this magnificent falls. It is a fire festival in which 6 meter high portable shrines symbolically representing the waterfall are purified with the fires from oversized torches laboriously carried by men dressed in white.
There are two temples that are also closely related to Kumano Nachi Taisha. Seiganto-ji Temple was founded in the early 5th century. Legend holds that a Buddhist priest from India drifted ashore and experienced a revelation of Kannon, the Buddhist deity of mercy. Seiganto-ji Temple is also the first sacred place of gSaigokujunreih, or pilgrimage to 33 Kannons which started in 1161. Fudarakusan-ji Temple is located approximately 6 km downstream from Nachi-no-Otaki near the coast and it is from here that Buddhist priests performed ritual martyrdom by sailing out into the southern sea in search of the Buddhist Pure Land called Fudarakusan.
