It has been visited by pilgrims seeking healing and salvation as a site of religious significance for over a thousand years. People with backgrounds from peasants to emperors would visit the region while guided by Shugendō monks.
One of the features of the Kumano Kodō is that the original stone pavement remains in many areas, such as the Daimonzaka slope. The reason for the use of cobblestones is that the Kii Peninsula is one of the areas in Japan with the highest rainfall.
There are many historic sites such as village ruins, teahouse and inn ruins, gravesites, markers of Imperial visits, Ichirizuka (waypoint mounds maintained by the Kishu Clan during the Edo Period), shrines, and Buddhist stupas where scrolls were buried.
Some of the Kumano Kodō routes overlap with national roads and urban routes and have been paved and shared with cars. For example, the route formerly known as the Totsukawa Kaido has been absorbed into Route 168 and most of the Ohechi and Iseji routes overlap with National Route 42. The reason why the Kiiji route is not World Heritage registered is because it was repaired and widened as a prefectural road and a mountain trail. This is related to the geography of the Kii Peninsula. The central part of the Kii Peninsula is covered with endless mountains and valleys, although there are no prominent high mountains. For this reason, it has been difficult since ancient times to develop transportation, and the places suitable for traffic have been limited. This is still the case today, and as a result, the main modern transportation routes parallel or overlap with the paths pioneered by the ancients. Examples of parallel routes include the Nakahechi and National Route 311, the Kii Peninsula portion of the JR Kisei Main Line and National Route 42, and the Ohechi and Iseji roads. There are also exceptions such as Kobeji and Omine Okugakemichi.
