A little of each town’s story

Kumano Nachi Taisha and the Yatagarasu

From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window

An ema plaque of the three-legged crow Yatagarasu, reading Musubi no Miya

One of the three grand shrines of Kumano, born of the worship of Nachi Falls, with a history of about 1,700 years. Legend says the Yatagarasu, the great three-legged crow that guided Emperor Jimmu to Nara, alighted here, and the bird appears on the shrine's votive plaques. Every July, during the Nachi Fire Festival, the deities are carried in portable shrines back to the falls for a "homecoming."

Sources: mlit.go.jp

This moment in the journey

Nachi Falls, one of Japan's three great waterfalls

My first stop was Nachi Falls, one of Japan's three most famous waterfalls. Beyond a vermilion three-storied pagoda, a white ribbon of water dropped in a single straight line.

Past a stone marker reading "World Heritage: Nachi Falls," I walked down an approach lined with cedars. Above a rocky bed hung with a sacred rope, the 133-meter waterfall came crashing down. It has long been worshipped as the sacred body of Hiro Shrine, and its history is said to reach back before the common era. Legend also has it that touching the spray will help you live a long life.

At the shrine counter, firewood burned in a brazier, and the votive plaques bore the three-legged crow Yatagarasu, the divine messenger said to have guided Japan's first emperor. I climbed a stone stairway between the cedars and gazed at the mossy roots of a great tree. It was a place where I could touch Japanese history.

Watch this scene on YouTube1:43

Read this scene in the full journey