Kii Peninsula: forests, pagodas and falls

The Kii Peninsula is the large, mountainous landmass that extends south from the Osaka and Nara area into the Pacific. Much of it is covered by steep forest, and for more than a thousand years it has been a land of pilgrimage.

Several sacred sites and the routes that connect them, including Kōyasan and the Kumano shrines linked by the Kumano Kodō trails, are listed together by UNESCO as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range. What makes the region distinctive is the way Shinto and Buddhist traditions meet here, with mountains, rocks and waterfalls revered alongside temples and shrines.

The opening frame shows a red three-storey pagoda among forested mountains with a waterfall behind it. Views that pair a pagoda with falling water are among the best-known images of this part of Japan, such as the scene at Nachi in Wakayama.

The rest of the set follows the same mood: a red bridge before a waterfall, stone lanterns on a misty path at Kōyasan, an old stone bridge half lost in green, and a Buddha slowly disappearing under moss. They are less a map of the peninsula than a sense of its texture: damp, quiet and very old.

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Photos: pen_ash, jplenio, yamabon, 8268513, deltaworks on Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. These are not my photographs.