Before Nara, before Kyoto, there was Fujiwara-kyō. In 694, the Empress Jitō moved the Japanese court to a new capital in the southern part of the Nara basin, the first in Japan to be laid out on a Chinese-style grid of streets, with the imperial palace at its centre. It lasted only sixteen years, until the court moved north to Nara in 710, but it marked a turning point in the history of the Japanese state.
The palace site, Fujiwara-kyū, lies in the fields of Kashihara, surrounded by three low hills, the Yamato Sanzan, which feature in ancient Japanese poetry. Today, the site is a wide open space, with the foundations of the great audience hall and other buildings marked by red posts and mounds. The site has been put forward for UNESCO listing as part of the Asuka-Fujiwara sites, together with Asuka's tombs and palaces. In different seasons, the fields around the site are planted with flowers: rapeseed in spring, lotus in summer, and cosmos in autumn, which turn the site into a sea of pink and white.
The Yamato Sanzan, the three mountains of Yamato, Unebi, Miminashi and Kagu, are small but culturally important, and Mount Kagu in particular is sacred in Japanese tradition. At the foot of Mount Unebi stands the Kashihara Shrine, dedicated to the legendary first emperor, Jimmu. The Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute museum displays finds from the area.
The riding around Kashihara is suburban and rural, through rice fields, villages and small towns. The roads are narrow and often busy, with lots of traffic lights. For more interesting riding, head south into the mountains of Yoshino and the Kii peninsula, or east toward the plateau of Uda and the Murō area, with its temple in the forest. Japan drives on the left.
Kashihara, about two kilometres away, has fuel and all services. Local food includes the Miwa sōmen noodles and the persimmons of the Nara area, which ripen in autumn. Autumn, with the cosmos in bloom, is the best time to visit.