Kumano Hayatama Onsen Mie

Kumano, a small city on the southeastern Mie Prefecture coast where the ancient Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail reaches the Pacific Ocean, is home to Hayatama Taisha, one of the three grand Kumano shrines within the UNESCO World Heritage sacred landscape, surrounded by ancient cryptomeria and camphor forests at the mouth of the Kumano River. Kumano Hayatama Onsen Mie draws on sodium and bicarbonate thermal waters from the geothermal resources of the Kii Peninsula's southern volcanic zone, offering restorative baths steeped in the profound spiritual atmosphere of the Kumano pilgrimage — a sacred journey undertaken by millions of Japanese since the Heian period, including emperors who abdicated to become pilgrim monks. The Shishi Iwa lion rock overlooking the Pacific coast, the ancient camphor tree of Hayatama Taisha reputed to be over a thousand years old, and the Onigashiro sea-stack rock formations offshore make Kumano one of the most spiritually charged thermal destinations on the Kii Peninsula coastline.