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.
431 km from Sakurai to Sakurai, about 6 h 22 of riding. On the way it passes Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji, Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha and Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In the Asuka district, a stone-lined pond lies below a gentle slope, with a channel feeding it and a neat edge of laid cobbles. The Asuka Pond Garden Site was uncovered in the late twentieth century, and it shows that the aristocracy of seventh-century Japan took water seriously, both as a garden feature and as part of ritual. The pond belongs to a type of formal water garden that was introduced from the Asian continent, along with Buddhism and Chinese court culture, and it was probably part of a palace or an elite residence, though the precise function is still debated.
Read the complete Asuka Pond Garden Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Asuka Pond Garden Site is where the day begins. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Ōminesan-ji is a temple on the summit of Mount Sanjō, one of the peaks of the Ōmine range in the heart of the Kii peninsula, and it holds a special place in Japanese religion. It is a centre of Shugendō, the mountain ascetic tradition that blends Buddhism, Shinto and older mountain worship, and its practitioners, the yamabushi, undergo arduous training on the ridges. The temple is famous for another reason too: the mountain is still closed to women by tradition, one of the last such places in Japan, which has become a subject of ongoing debate.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji.
Getting to Kōyasan feels like a pilgrimage even on a motorcycle. The roads climb out of the Kinokawa valley through dense cedar forest, switchback after switchback, until you emerge onto a high basin at around eight hundred metres where a whole town of temples has grown up. The monk Kūkai, known after his death as Kōbō Daishi, founded the monastery here in the early ninth century as the centre of Shingon Buddhism, and Kongōbu-ji is the head temple of the sect. Its halls, painted sliding doors and the large rock garden are worth an unhurried visit, and the whole mountain is part of the UNESCO listing of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha.
Deep in the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, where forested ridges fold one behind another like the scenery in a woodblock print, stands the head shrine of the Kumano faith. Kumano Hongū Taisha is one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, and for over a thousand years emperors, aristocrats and ordinary pilgrims have walked here along the network of mountain trails known as the Kumano Kodō, now part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha, about halfway. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N.
The Kumano Kodō is a web of ancient pilgrimage trails across the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, leading to the three grand shrines of Kumano: Hongū, Hayatama and Nachi. For over a thousand years, emperors, aristocrats and ordinary pilgrims walked these paths through cedar and cypress forest, stopping at small subsidiary shrines along the way. The Nakahechi, the most popular of the routes, leaves the coast near Tanabe and climbs inland through the hills. It is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, listed by UNESCO in 2004, one of only two pilgrimage routes on the list along with the Camino de Santiago, with which it is twinned.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha comes up about 252 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 332 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji. Next is back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, late in the day. Next is Asuka Pond Garden Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Asuka Pond Garden Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 431 km.
Asuka Pond Garden Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N → back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → Asuka Pond Garden Site is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.