Kumano Hongū Taisha

The Kumano Hongū Taisha (熊野本宮大社) is a Shinto shrine and one of three Kumano shrines in southeastern Kii, Japan.^[1]

History

By the 11th century, the shrine was the first shrine to be part of the Kumano Sanzan. At this time, its main deity was the Buddha Amitābha (Amida Nyorai), which attracted the imperial family and their nobles, who sought to be reborn in the Pure Land after their deaths.^[2] In 1582, the Kakushiba ikki members Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke visited the shrine and garnered the attention of a local monk. The monk told them of his previous life as a bandit and asked them to rid the land of the bandits, who attacked his fellow monks and the shrines. After killing these bandits, they returned to the monk, who thanked them and gifted them both gold and mon as their reward.^[3] While there, Naoe and Yasuke paid their respects to three of its smaller shrines.^[4]