The peninsula has long been a sacred place in Buddhism, Shinto, and Shugendo, and many people would visit from all over Japan as part of the Kumano religious practices.

The area south of the “Central Tectonic Line” is called Nanki (南紀), and is home to reef-like coral communities which are amongst the northernmost in the world[2] (apart from cold-water corals[3]) due to the presence of the warm Kuroshio Current,[2] though these are threatened by global warming[4] and human interference.

[5] The natural landscape of the Kii Peninsula is dense temperate rainforest, but the vast majority of forests are monoculture pine plantations which were planted to rebuild after the destruction of World War II.

Much of the coast consists of networks of small rias into which flow very steep and rapid streams characterised by numerous high waterfalls.

Forestry and fishing were the traditional economic mainstays of the region and remain important even today despite a declining population and labour force.