In the past, this temple was unified with the adjacent Kumano Nachi Taisha as a place for BuddhistShinto syncretic mountain asceticism, but it became an independent Tendai sect temple in the Meiji Period under the impact of the government order separating Buddhism and Shintoism. Nachisan Seiganto-ji was also the first temple on the “Saikokujunrei,” or pilgrimage to the 33 Kannon images in Western Japan, which began in 1161. In the Edo Period, many pilgrims visited Ise Jingu and completed the Kumano Sanzan pilgrimage and Saigokujunrei pilgrimage at the same time.

One of the Kumano Sanzan, Kumano Nachi Taisha is located halfway up Mt. Nachisan and its object of worship is the Nachi-no-Otaki Falls. The main enshrined deity is Izanamino-Mikoto. There is a sacred camphor tree about 850 years old on the grounds and visitors can pass through the hollowed out trunk in an act symbolic of rebirth.

This is a temple of the Tendai sect and from the Heian Period to the Edo Period was a place where the Fudaraku-tokai, crossing the sea to the southern pure land, took place. Priests and devotees headed out in small boats to the southern sea, aiming for Fudarakusan, a pure land far away presided over by Kannon, bodhisattva of compassion. These journeys were carried out about twenty times from the 9th century to the 18th century. There are tombstones on the grounds for priests who went out on the Fudaraku-tokai.

Adjacent to Fudarakusan-ji Temple, this is one of the 99 Oji-jinja shrines of Kumano and shows the remnants of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism. The shrine is currently known as Kumano Sansho Omiwasha.

At 133 meters high and 13 meters wide, Nachi-no-Otaki boasts the greatest drop of any one-tier waterfall in Japan. It has been worshipped since ancient times as a divine object of Kumano Nachi Taisha, and Hiro-jinja stands next to the waterfall basin. Also, the entire area surrounding the waterfall is protected as primeval forest of Nachi. The place for ascetic training by mountain monks who practice Shugendo, made up of large and small waterfalls known collectively as the 48 waterfalls of Nachi, is upstream.

Daimonzaka is the approach path to Kumano Nachi Taisha and Nachisan Seiganto-ji. It is about 640 m long and has 267 mossy stone steps. At the base of the staircase are two 800-year-old Japanese cedar trees called the Meoto-sugi or “married couple cedar trees.” The path is also surrounded by camphor and other trees and provides a representative image of the Kumano Kodo. Its name means “large gate slope” and has its origins in the large shrinegate that once stood at Kumano Nachi Taisha. At the teahouse partway up Daimonzaka, you can experience a pilgrimage dressed in a Heian Period costume.

After passing Ukui, the trail follows route 42 and crosses two small passes, Kokuji-toge Pass and Okuji-toge Pass. “Kuji” is said to mean kujira, or whale, and there are thought to be whalers’ lookouts on these passes.