Ōmine Okugakemichi

Ōmine Okugakemichi

大峯奥駈道
Yamabushi on the Ōmine Okugakemichin
Shown within Wakayama Prefecture Show map of Wakayama Prefecture Ōmine Okugakemichi (Japan) Show map of Japan
Location	Yoshino, Nara to Shingū, Wakayama, Japan
Region	Kansai region
Type	Pilgrimage route
History
Founded	early 7th century AD
Periods	Asuka period
Site notes
Public access	Yes
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii, iv, vi
Designated	2004
National Historic Site of Japan

The Ōmine Okugakemichi (大峯奥駈道, lit. “deep inner path of the grand peaks”) is a pilgrimage route on the Kii Peninsula in the Kansai region of Japan. It begins in Yanagi-no-shuku, a former ferry station on the Yoshino River in Nara prefecture, leads through the 1200-1900 meter Ōmine mountain region of Yoshino and Kumano in Wakayama Prefecture and ends after about 170 kilometers at the Kumano Hongū Taisha.

According to tradition, the Ōmine Okugakemichi was established as a training ground for Shugendō, a syncretic religion incorporating aspects of Taoism, Shinto, esoteric Buddhism and traditional Japanese shamanism,^[1] by the Asuka period mystic En no Gyōja. It connects Kimpusen-ji in Yoshino district, Nara Prefecture with the Kumano Sanzan in southern Wakayama Prefecture. 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 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.^[2]

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.^[2] 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, Kishū Domain controlled most of the territory the path traversed, and often viewed Shugendō monks with suspicion. After the Meiji Restoration, Shugendō faced hostility from the Meiji government'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.^[2] In 2002, the trail was designated as a National Historic Site,^[3] and it was included within the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.

• 
  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
• 
  No.47 Zenkisan (route is up the slope, assisted by rope)

• List of Historic Sites of Japan (Nara)
• List of Historic Sites of Japan (Wakayama)

• Morisawa Yoshinobu: Ōmine Okugakemichi 75 nabiki. Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2006 (森沢義信『大峯奥駈道七十五靡』ナカニシヤ出版) ISBN 4-779-50084-2
• Shugendō shugyōtaikei hensaniinkai: Shugendō shugyōtaikei. Kokusho kankōkai, 1994 (修験道修行大系編纂委員会編『修験道修行大系』国書刊行会) 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Omine okugakemichi.

• 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) [1] Retrieved on 2018-11-4.