South of Nara city, the plain is flat and green, with rice paddies in every direction and low, rounded mountains standing on its rim, and the first Japanese states grew here. Kashihara, on the southern side of the basin, sits near the old capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, where the court and the first lasting Buddhist temples took shape in the sixth and seventh centuries. Kurizuka is one of the many kofun, ancient burial mounds, scattered around the district, and it is a modest, tree-covered hump rather than a spectacular monument.
What makes the area interesting is how thickly history is packed into it. The Kawara-dera temple site, listed on our label, is the remains of one of the oldest temples in Japan, with foundation stones and a quiet field where there were once halls. Nearby stand the Ishibutai tomb, an enormous stone chamber uncovered by the removal of its earth mound, and the Takamatsuzuka tomb, famous for its painted walls. Legend places the first emperor, Jimmu, in Kashihara, and a large shrine bears his name.
The riding is calm and gentle. The roads wind between paddies, villages and persimmon orchards, with low gradients, short climbs into the foothills, and plenty of narrow lanes with sudden turns. The surface is generally good, but tight corners, farm vehicles and cyclists are part of the experience, and hire-cycle tourists tend to wander. Autumn is the best time, particularly when the red spider lilies bloom along the paddy edges in September and the rice turns gold in October. Summers are very humid, and mountain roads on the edge of the basin can be foggy.
Kashihara is a sizeable town of seventy thousand and more, so fuel, convenience stores and noodle shops are no problem, and the Kintetsu railway lines mean there are small station cafes everywhere. Be aware that many kofun are protected as imperial tombs and cannot be entered, and that the mounds themselves are often hard to recognise unless you know what you are looking at. A sign, a moat and a stand of old pines are usually the clues.