Mt.Nachi-san那智山

Nachi Primeval Forest, a place of mountain god worship. Nachi-no-Otaki Falls, 133 meters high, astonishes every visitor.

Mt. Nachi-san, a generic name for the mountains surrounding Kumano Nachi-taisha Shrine located upstream of the Nachi-gawa River in the southeast of Wakayama, is part of Yoshino-Kumano National Park. Its whole neighborhood is a timberland called Nachi primeval forest and has been revered as a place of asceticism for mountain god worshipers.

In the Mt. Nachi-san area is the Kumano Nachi-taisha Shrine having five Shinto buildings called "Kumano-Gongen" (avatar of Kumano) structure, which are important cultural properties of Japan and are the architectural style of the 8th through 10th century. Other places worth a visit include the Seiganto-ji Temple with a vermilion three-storied pagoda, a Mt. Nachi-san's symbol, and the Hiryu-jinja Shrine, the holy to worship the Nachi-no-Otaki Falls, also known as "Ichi-no-taki", as what symbolizes the divine spirit. The three-storied pagoda of the Seiganto-ji Temple was reconstructed in 1972, and its view spot affords a full view of the Nachi-no-Otaki Falls.

Every summer, the Kumano Nachi-taisha Shrine annual grand festival is staged. Known as "Fire Festival of Nachi (Nachi-no-Hi-Matsuri) ", it climaxes in the "purification of Ogi-mikoshi" that takes place at the stairways of Hiryu-jinja Shrine, where twelve units of Ogi-mikoshi (1-meter-wide and 6-meter-long portable shrine decorated with fans) are "burned" by way of purification with the sparks from twelve giant torches weighing 50 kilograms that the bearers swing around as they go up and down the stone stairs.