Kumano Hongu Taisha

Kumano Hongu Taisha, located in Hongu-cho, Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture, is the central shrine of the three Kumano Sanzan and the head of the Kumano cult. The principal deity is Ketsumimiko-no-Okami, identified from the medieval period with Susanoo-no-Mikoto. The shrine also enshrines Fusumi-no-Okami (Izanami) and Hayatama-no-Okami (Izanagi) and the rest of the twelve Kumano gongen. The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki accounts of Susanoo combined with the Heian theory of the Kumano gongen as manifestations of buddhas produced a distinctive composite devotion. The original shrine stood at Oyunohara, the central island at the confluence of the Kumano and Otonashi rivers, until it was swept away in the 1889 flood and relocated to higher ground; the original site now bears Japan's largest torii at 33.9 m high. It is recorded in the Engishiki Jinmyocho of 927 as Kumano-niimasu-jinja of Muro District, Kii Province, a Myojin Taisha. The shrine forms the core of the World Heritage Site Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.