This month UNESCO will twin the legendary pilgrims walks of Kumano Kodo in Japan with the Camino de Santiago. The ancient walks are being promoted as ‘the pilgrimages of the rising and setting sun’ and both offer fascinating walking journeys through history, great food and wonderful landscapes. The Kumano Kodo is much shorter than the Camino at 5 days but offers splendid walking through a mountainous and sparsely populated part of the Japanese mainland.
The Kumano Kodo is a Buddhist Pilgrimage that dates back over 1,000 years, when people from all level of society included retired Emperors and noblemen made the arduous pilgrimage to Kumano. These Pilgrims used a network of routes, now called the Kumano Kodo, which stretch across the mountainous Kii peninsula.
RAW is now offering both routes with guided and self guided options ( Kumano Kodo trips starting at the end of this month).
[…] The Kumano Kodo has a low profile outside Japan; the Camino de Santiago in north-west Spain is much better known, but that is changing: more visitors are coming to walk it, Unesco has designated it a world heritage site and it has been twinned with the Camino de Santiago. […]
Hi Tiziana,
Thank you so much for your post and we are very pleased that you have found our website helpful and that it was what you have been looking for. This pilgrimage is amazing and a personal journey of self discovery. Please email info@rawtravel if you would like to discuss travel options. Camino Travel Specialists can show you what a self guided, personalised and tailormade itinerary could look like. You can also visit self guided tour examples at The Camino Experts.
We hope that you see the Camino with your own eyes soon.
This is exciting news. I wanted to mention that the Kumano Kodo is much longer than 5 days! Most tourists spend 2-5 days walking here and can do a lot in that time. The Kodo itself is a network of trails reaching many destinations, with four main routes and many smaller routes as well, which spans hundreds of kilometers.
Hi Todd, We just mentioned the 5 days in relation to the Nakahechi route which we think will be the most popular option but you are right there are quite a few routes on offer to reach Kumano Hongu. All of them offer something different and we are very excited to be able to start walks in the region. Thank you Todd! 🙂