Gran Tenku

Gran Tenku is Nankai's sightseeing limited express from Namba, in the middle of Osaka, to Gokurakubashi at the foot of Kōyasan, the mountain monastery where Kōbō Daishi founded Shingon Buddhism in the ninth century. A five-minute cable car finishes the climb to the temple town, which has been a World Heritage Site since 2004.

For its first hour the train runs as a city express through the suburbs of Osaka. Then, past Hashimoto, the railway turns into a mountain line: single track, gradients of 50 per mille, curves of 100 metres radius or less and a speed limit of 33 km/h, through two dozen tunnels and over high bridges in the forest. The 63.8 km take about an hour and a half.

The train is a four-car set rebuilt in deep crimson and fitted out with crafts from along the line. It replaced the green Tenku on 24 April 2026, runs two round trips on most days, and every seat is reserved.

The train leaves from Platform 0 at Namba, a platform rebuilt for it alone, and runs south through Shin-Imamiya and Tengachaya onto the Kōya Line. For the next hour it is a fast suburban run: Sakaihigashi, Kongō, Kawachinagano and Rinkan-den'entoshi, climbing gently through the hills on the Osaka–Wakayama border to Hashimoto, where the double track ends.

Into the mountains

Beyond Hashimoto the train crosses the Kinokawa on a red truss bridge and stops at Kudoyama, the town where the samurai Sanada Yukimura lived in exile. Past Kōyashita the climb begins in earnest. The line follows the narrow valley of the Fudōdani River on gradients of 50 per mille and curves of 100 metres radius or less, at no more than 33 km/h, and between Kōyashita and Gokurakubashi it passes through 23 numbered tunnels. Villages give way to forest; after Kamikosawa the train crosses the high Kasagi Bridge and soon enters the town of Kōya. Just before the terminus, the vermilion bridge that gives Gokurakubashi, "the bridge to paradise", its name appears on the right.

From Hashimoto to Gokurakubashi the railway climbs 443 metres. The cable car from Gokurakubashi climbs another 328 metres in 0.8 km, on gradients up to 568 per mille, to Kōyasan station. Its cars, the fourth generation since the line opened in 1930, entered service in March 2019.

The train

Gran Tenku is set 2001 of Nankai's 2000 series, a "zoom car": a 17-metre type built for the Kōya Line, fast on the plain and strong on the mountain grades. Nankai rebuilt it for this service, panelling over some of its doors. Car 1 has reclining seats, two and one across the aisle; Car 2 faces a row of seats onto the windows, with tables; Car 3 is a lounge with a counter selling drinks, sweets and souvenirs; Car 4 has sofa seats for four, where meals are served. Seats 2, 4, 23 and 27 in Car 1 have no side window. Commentary on the sights is in Japanese only. The handrails are made from rails of the forest railway that once ran in these mountains.

Two round trips run every day except Wednesdays and the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. When a Wednesday is a public holiday the train runs and the Thursday is the day off; a second or fourth Thursday that is a holiday runs as normal. Every seat is reserved.

Namba to Gokurakubashi

Gokurakubashi to Namba

Good to know:

• Weekdays are shown. At weekends and on holidays some calls along the way are one to four minutes earlier, No. 2 leaves Gokurakubashi at 10:47 and No. 4 reaches Namba at 16:26; the other end times do not change.
• All trains also stop at Shin-Imamiya, Tengachaya, Kongō and Rinkan-den'entoshi.
• The cable car to Kōyasan station meets every train and takes about five minutes.

Times as of November 2026, from Nankai's Gran Tenku timetable (opens in a new tab).

In Cars 1 and 2 you pay the ordinary fare, ¥1,430 from Namba to Kōyasan including the cable car, plus a Gran Tenku ticket: ¥1,700 from Namba to Gokurakubashi, ¥300 more if bought on board. Tickets go on sale at midnight 30 days ahead on Nankai's booking site, which takes credit cards only; on the day, the Namba service centre and the Gokurakubashi and Kōyasan stations also take bookings.

Car 4 is sold as a package for groups of two or more, the fare to Kōyasan included, from ¥11,230 a person with breakfast or afternoon tea and ¥13,430 with lunch, for a group of four. Cancelling is free until midnight on the day you buy. Fares checked November 2026 on Nankai's Gran Tenku pages; Japanese yen.

Gran Tenku is a Nankai train, and the Japan Rail Pass does not cover it: the pass is for JR lines, and a private railway such as Nankai charges its own fare.

Nankai's own Kōyasan World Heritage Digital Ticket costs ¥3,980 for an adult. It covers the return fare to Kōyasan station, cable car included, two days on the Nankai Rinkan buses that link the temples on the mountain, and discounts at temples and shops, valid for two consecutive days. It does not include the Gran Tenku ticket, so add the ¥1,700 seat; the dearer ¥4,910 version adds an outbound seat on the ordinary limited express Kōya, not on Gran Tenku.

For a visit to Kōyasan it is usually worth having. Two single fares cost ¥2,860, so the extra ¥1,120 buys two days of buses, and on the mountain the cable car station, the Daimon gate and Okunoin are a bus ride apart.

Checked November 2026 against Nankai's World Heritage ticket (opens in a new tab) page and the Japan Rail Pass route guide (opens in a new tab).

Kōyasan is a town of 117 temples on a high basin in the forest, and 52 of them take overnight guests. Buses from Kōyasan station run the length of the town, from the Daimon gate at the western end to Okunoin at the eastern. A day trip on Gran Tenku No. 1 and No. 4 gives about four hours on the mountain; a night in a temple gives the morning service as well.

On Kōyasan the place to sleep is a shukubo, a temple that takes guests: a Japanese-style room, Buddhist vegetarian cooking, and a place at the temple's morning service. In Osaka, a hotel above Namba station puts the 9:00 departure a lift ride away.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about Gran Tenku. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.