CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 213 km round trip from Sakurai - roughly 3 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes Hokki-ji Area, Nisanzai Kofun, Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja and back through Nisanzai Kofun. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows Asuka Palace Site → Hokki-ji Area for 29 km.
Few places in Japan can claim as much early history as the plain of Asuka, in the south of the Nara basin. In the seventh century, before Nara or Kyoto existed, the court moved from place to place, and for much of that century the centre of power was here. The Asuka Palace Site, also called Itabuki, was the residence of several sovereigns, and the building was reworked more than once. In 645, in the audience hall of this palace, the court strongman Soga no Iruka was cut down in front of the empress by Prince Naka no Oe and Nakatomi no Kamatari, an assassination that opened the way to the Taika reforms, the first attempt to build a centralised state on the Chinese model.
Read the complete Asuka Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Asuka Palace Site is where the day begins. Next is Hokki-ji Area.
Ikaruga, a quiet town on the western edge of the Nara basin, is where Japanese Buddhist architecture begins. The temple of Hōryū-ji, founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, has wooden buildings counted among the oldest surviving in the world, and in 1993 the Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area became, along with Himeji Castle, the first Japanese sites on the UNESCO list. A short distance north, among rice fields and houses, Hokki-ji is a smaller temple with a single treasure: a three-storey pagoda completed in the early eighth century, the oldest of its type in Japan. Seen across the fields with the hills behind, it is a lovely, peaceful sight.
Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hokki-ji Area comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nisanzai Kofun.
In the middle of the sprawling city of Sakai, south of Osaka, a large keyhole-shaped mound rises above a ring of moats, covered in dense forest and surrounded by houses, roads and shops. This is the Nisanzai Kofun, a monumental tomb built in the fifth century for a member of the ruling elite of early Japan. It is one of the largest of the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a collection of burial mounds listed by UNESCO in 2019, which includes the enormous Daisen Kofun, traditionally attributed to the emperor Nintoku and one of the largest tombs in the world by area.
Read the complete Nisanzai Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Nisanzai Kofun. Next is Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja.
A hunter with two dogs, according to the legend, is why Koyasan exists. When the monk Kukai, later called Kobo Daishi, returned from studying in China in the early ninth century, he threw a ritual three-pronged object into the air and asked it to land on a site for a mountain monastery. He found it hanging in a pine tree on a high plateau in the Kii mountains, and there he met a hunter, the god Karibamyojin, who led him to the place with his dogs. The hunter's mother, the goddess Niutsuhime, is honoured at the shrine that guards the approach. Kukai founded his monastery in 816, and Koyasan has been the headquarters of Shingon Buddhism since.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja, about halfway. Next is back through Nisanzai Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nisanzai Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nisanzai Kofun sits at 133 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hokki-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hokki-ji Area comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is Asuka Palace Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Asuka Palace Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Asuka Palace Site closes the day.
Asuka Palace Site → Hokki-ji Area is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hokki-ji Area → Nisanzai Kofun is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nisanzai Kofun → Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja → back through Nisanzai Kofun is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nisanzai Kofun → back through Hokki-ji Area is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hokki-ji Area → Asuka Palace Site is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.