Tamaki Jinja

photo by Tokiwokakeru · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Kansai explorer · CC BY 3.0

The sacred cedar is 3,000 years old: you get there by taxi from Totsukawa Onsen, then 15 min on foot.

The shrine stands at the ninth stage, just below the summit of Mount Tamaki, 1,076 metres, on the Ōmine Okugake pilgrimage route, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range’ since 2004. It is surrounded by monumental cedars, one of them estimated at about 3,000 years old; it keeps a small bronze bell dated to 1163 and the sacred stone Tamaishi, linked by tradition to Emperor Jinmu.

According to the shrine's tradition, Tamaki Jinja was founded in the 61st year of the reign of Emperor Sujin (37 BC), together with the Kumano Hongū shrine, a dating that historians do not find corroborated by independent sources. During the Edo period it became a training centre for Shugendō ascetics, and it was considered the inner sanctum of the three Kumano shrines.

ℹ️ ⚠️ Access is difficult without your own car: from JR Gojō or from Kintetsu Yamato-Yagi, take the bus for Shingū via Totsukawa as far as Totsukawa Onsen, then 20 minutes by taxi with Sanko Taxi, which has limited availability, to the Tamaki-yama car park, and finally 15 minutes on foot. At weekends and on public holidays a dedicated bus runs from Totsukawa Onsen, 810 yen each way, with booking by 17:00 on the previous day; it does not run in winter. The existence of an alternative trail from the valley floor is not confirmed. Shrine open 8:00–17:00, free admission.

🚉 十津川温泉 · 140 min walk

Sources: yamatoji.nara-kankou.or.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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