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Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Kamishikimistone lanternsUgeto-iwaTakamoricedar forest

Photo: Ann Lee / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · original

Ask where to send a first-time visitor for a temple or shrine in Kumamoto, and Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine comes up more than once.

The approach to Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu runs uphill through cedar forest between ninety-seven moss-covered stone lanterns, and the light coming down through the trees onto them is why photographs of it circulate constantly. Behind the shrine buildings, a further climb leads to Ugeto-iwa, a hole blown clean through a cliff more than ten metres across and high.

Legend holds that the god Takeiwatatsu kicked it open. The rock is now a place people pray at for getting through difficulties — the hole being the thing that could not be got through, and was. It is a small shrine in a village in southern Aso with no facilities and a free car park, and the climb to the rock is steep enough that shoes matter more than most visitors expect.

Visiting essentials

Best time to visit

Year-round | After rain for the moss | Avoid ice on the upper path

Hours

Open at all times | Daylight for the upper path

Closed: Open year-round

Admission

Free | Free parking

Time to allow

60–90 minutes

Finding your way there

Access notes

Kamishikimi 2619, Takamori, Aso District. By car from Takamori Station on the Minami-Aso Railway, or by the Shikimi loop bus. Free to visit, with free parking on Route 265 near the Shikimi post office; large vehicles, bicycles and motorcycles can also park there. The approach passes 97 stone lanterns through cedar forest; Ugeto-iwa, a wind hole over 10 m across, is a further climb behind the shrine on a steep unpaved path.

What locals know

**Ugeto-iwa is a further climb.** Most photographs stop at the lantern approach. The rock behind the shrine is a steep unmade path and is the reason the shrine exists. **Wear proper shoes.** The upper path is uneven, rooty and slippery in rain. It is short but it is not a stroll. **Ninety-seven lanterns.** Moss-covered, in cedar forest, on a stair. Overcast and after rain is when the moss reads best — bright sun flattens it. **It is a village shrine.** No shop, no toilets, no staff. Park in the marked area on Route 265 rather than on the lane. **The rock is prayed at for breakthroughs.** A hole through solid cliff. The association with getting past what cannot be got past is why students and job-seekers come.

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