Wooden Seated Statue of Kumano Hayatama No Okami / Wooden

An Introduction to the Four Sacred Images

The four statues represent the central deities worshipped at Kumano Hayatama Taisha and the wider Kumano Sanzan tradition. Three of them — Hayatama Ōkami, Fusumi Ōkami, and Ketsumiko Ōkami — form the trinity known as the Kumano Sansho (the Three Kumano Deities). Joined by Kunitokotachi-no-mikoto, a primordial earth deity from Japanese myth, the four together embody the spiritual cosmos of Kumano belief.

What makes these statues so remarkable is not only their age but the artistic decisions made by the sculptors who created them. The two principal deities, Hayatama Ōkami (a male god) and Fusumi Ōkami (a female goddess), were carved at a scale exceeding human size, while Ketsumiko Ōkami and Kunitokotachi-no-mikoto were carved life-size. This deliberate hierarchy of scale is thought to express the elevated divine status of the chief deities — a visual language unique to early Japanese religious sculpture.

Historical Background

The statues date to the early Heian period (roughly the 9th to early 10th century), placing them among the oldest surviving examples of Japanese deity sculpture. This was a transformative era in Japanese religious history. Before this time, the indigenous gods of Japan had rarely been depicted in human form; the practice of carving anthropomorphic deity statues (shinzō) emerged through dialogue with Buddhism, which had introduced the tradition of figural icons centuries earlier.

Kumano had been a place of mountain worship since prehistoric antiquity. According to tradition, the deities first descended at the great rock of Gotobiki at nearby Kamikura Shrine before being enshrined at the present Hayatama Taisha site — which is why this main shrine came to be known as the "New Shrine" (Shingu) in contrast to the older mountaintop sanctuary. By the time these four statues were carved, Kumano had become a major center of pilgrimage, drawing emperors, retired sovereigns, and commoners alike along the Kumano Kodō trails.

Over the centuries, the shrine suffered repeated calamities, including a fire in 1883 that destroyed the main buildings. Yet through wars, fires, floods, and the social upheavals of modern Japan, these four statues survived — a testament to the devotion of generations of priests and parishioners who guarded them.

Why These Statues Were Designated National Treasures

On June 9, 2005, the Japanese government designated all four statues collectively as a National Treasure. The reasoning behind this honor reflects several interlocking values.

First is their sheer antiquity and rarity. Surviving examples of early Heian-period deity sculpture are extraordinarily few, and a complete set of four major statues from the same shrine is unparalleled. The shrine holds three additional Heian-era deity statues, all designated Important Cultural Properties — but those date from the later Heian period and are smaller in scale, making the four 9th–10th century statues the artistic and religious centerpiece of the collection.

Second is their artistic mastery. Each statue is carved from a single block of cypress wood (ichiboku-zukuri), a demanding technique that requires the sculptor to envision the entire figure within the natural form of the tree. The robes worn by Hayatama and Fusumi reflect the court attire of male officials and female ladies-in-waiting of the early Heian era — a feature shared with other early deity images. The unusual postures, including holding ceremonial scepters, folded hands hidden in sleeves (kyōshu), kneeling positions, and even single-knee-raised seating, suggest that the iconography had not yet become standardized, preserving an archaic dignity.

Third is their iconographic significance. The crown worn by Hayatama Ōkami bears a painted arabesque (karakusa) pattern that scholars have compared to colored decoration on the wooden halo at Taima-dera. This crown is thought to reflect early Buddhist-Shinto syncretism (shinbutsu shūgō), making the statue a tangible record of how Japanese religious culture evolved. The Cultural Heritage Online database describes the figures as expressing distinctive personalities: Hayatama Ōkami appears as a heroic warrior with wide-open eyes and a long-flowing beard; Fusumi Ōkami as full-figured yet authoritative; and Ketsumiko Ōkami as sharply alert and youthful.

Highlights and What to Look For

Visitors who come to Kumano Hayatama Taisha will not always be able to view the four National Treasure statues in person. Since December 2005, they have been entrusted to the Wakayama Prefectural Museum in Wakayama City, where they are kept in temperature- and humidity-controlled storage to ensure their long-term preservation. They are sometimes brought out for special exhibitions, particularly those marking milestone anniversaries of the World Heritage designation.

The shrine itself, however, has launched a remarkable project to bring these images closer to visitors: in collaboration with Wakayama Industrial High School and the Wakayama Prefectural Museum, life-size replicas are being produced using 3D scanning and printing technology, with hand-finished detailing applied afterward. These replicas are being created for the 20th anniversary of the World Heritage inscription of "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range."

Even when the originals are not on view, the shrine's Shinpōkan (Treasure Hall) houses a remarkable collection of approximately 1,200 sacred treasures (kojinpō), most of which are also National Treasures. These include lacquer cosmetic boxes with gold maki-e decoration, painted folding fans of cypress, gilt-bronze portable shrines, and ceremonial ornaments — many of them donated in 1390 by Emperor, retired Emperor, and the third Ashikaga shogun Yoshimitsu. Together they form one of the finest assemblages of medieval craftsmanship surviving in Japan.

The Surrounding Area

Kumano Hayatama Taisha sits at the heart of Shingu City, where centuries of pilgrimage tradition meet the everyday life of a Pacific coastal town. Within easy walking distance, visitors can explore several other significant sites.

Kamikura Shrine, an auxiliary shrine of Hayatama Taisha set high on a steep stone stairway, contains the great Gotobiki rock where the Kumano deities are said to have first descended. The annual Otō Matsuri fire festival, held every February 6, sees nearly 2,000 men in white robes carrying torches down the steep stone steps in one of Japan's most dramatic ritual events.

Asuka Shrine, located near the mouth of the Kumano River, is another sacred site associated with the Kumano deities and is included in the World Heritage designation. Jofuku Park, dedicated to the legendary Chinese envoy Xu Fu who is said to have arrived in Japan in search of the elixir of immortality, offers a different cultural perspective. Shingu Castle Ruins and the elegant Western-style Nishimura Memorial Hall add layers of Edo-period and modern history to the town.

Nature lovers will appreciate the giant nagi tree in the shrine precincts — a Natural Monument said to have been planted by the Heian-period warlord Taira no Shigemori, with an estimated age of over 1,000 years. The nagi has long been venerated as a "tree of world peace," and its leaves are considered amulets of enduring bonds.