Ichinohashi Shopping Street (Koyasan)

The Ichinohashi shopping street runs along the approach to Okunoin, the mountaintop temple town of Koyasan in Wakayama, and is unlike an ordinary retail strip because nearly every shop sells goods tied to Shingon Buddhist practice rather than general merchandise. Vendors offer hand-strung juzu prayer beads made from sandalwood, rosewood, or crystal, goma-dofu sesame tofu produced by shokubo temple lodgings using recipes unique to the mountain, and shuincho stamp books used to collect temple seals across Koyasan's 117 temples. Most goods here are genuinely local rather than imported souvenirs, since many shops are run by families connected to the temple community and some goma-dofu makers have supplied the mountain for generations; still, a handful of stalls closer to the bus stops sell generic Japan-themed trinkets aimed at day-trippers, so shoppers should look for shops with visible workshops or long shop histories for authenticity. Cash remains the default at older family shops, though the larger goma-dofu retailers and gift shops near Senjuinbashi increasingly accept IC cards and credit cards; consumption tax refunds are rarely offered at these small, family-run outlets. The atmosphere is quiet and reverent compared to city shopping streets, with pilgrims in white robes and the scent of incense drifting from nearby temples, and several shops sell goma-dofu tasting sets or simple noodle and tofu meals alongside their retail goods. The street runs in a single line along the pilgrim route, so the natural flow is to browse from the Ichinohashi bridge toward Okunoin, with the highest concentration of prayer-bead and stamp-book shops clustered near Senjuinbashi.