Why this ride
From Uji it runs 297 km to Uji; allow about 5 h 37 of riding. On the way it passes Hokki-ji Area, Tatsusayama Kofun, Yakushi-ji and Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Byōdō-in and Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 297 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 37
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Byōdō-in
Take a ten-yen coin out of your pocket in Japan and you are holding a picture of this place. The Phoenix Hall of the Byōdō-in in Uji, with its wings stretching out on either side of a central hall and bronze phoenixes on the roof, is one of the most famous buildings in the country. It was built in 1053 by Fujiwara no Yorimichi, a member of the most powerful aristocratic family of the Heian period, who converted his father's villa into a Buddhist temple. Its reflection in the pond in front was meant to evoke the Pure Land paradise of the Amida Buddha.
Read the complete Byodo-in write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Byōdō-in is where the day begins. Next is Hokki-ji Area.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hokki-ji Area comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tatsusayama Kofun.
3. Tatsusayama Kofun
Southern Osaka has a secret that is hard to see from the ground: its suburbs are woven around ancient burial mounds, some of them among the largest tombs ever built. In Sakai, these kofun belong to the Mozu group, which, together with the Furuichi group further east, was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2019. Tatsusayama is one of the smaller mounds, a wooded hill surrounded by houses and roads, but it is part of the same story. Between roughly the fourth and sixth centuries, the rulers of the Yamato court and their elite were buried in tombs shaped like keyholes when seen from above, with moats around them and clay figures called haniwa placed on their slopes.
Read the complete Tatsusayama Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Tatsusayama Kofun. Next is Yakushi-ji.
4. Yakushi-ji
Yakushi-ji is one of the great temples of Nara, the capital of Japan in the eighth century. It was founded by Emperor Tenmu in the late seventh century, praying for the recovery of his ill empress, and moved to its present site when the capital moved to Nara in 710. Dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing, it is part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. The East Pagoda, which has stood since the eighth century, is one of the few surviving buildings from that era, and its layered roofs, with smaller roofs between each storey, create a rhythm described by one admirer as frozen music.
Read the complete Yakushi-ji write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yakushi-ji, about halfway. Next is Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun.
5. Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun
The Mozu kofun are strange. In the middle of modern Sakai, a heavy industrial and residential city south of Osaka, rise huge forested mounds surrounded by water-filled moats, some of them shaped like a keyhole, and these are the tombs of the rulers of Japan from the fifth century. Hanzei's tomb is one of the smaller ones in the group, though still well over a hundred metres long, and it is easily reached because the moat path runs around it. The giant of the group, attributed to Emperor Nintoku, is nearly five hundred metres long and one of the largest tombs in the world by area.
Read the complete Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yakushi-ji.
6. back through Yakushi-ji
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yakushi-ji write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Yakushi-ji comes up about 187 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Tatsusayama Kofun.
7. back through Tatsusayama Kofun
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tatsusayama Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 227 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Tatsusayama Kofun. Next is back through Hokki-ji Area.
8. back through Hokki-ji Area
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hokki-ji Area, late in the day. Next is Byodo-in.
9. Byōdō-in
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Byodo-in write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 297 km.
Leg by leg
Byōdō-in to Hokki-ji Area
Byōdō-in → Hokki-ji Area is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hokki-ji Area to Tatsusayama Kofun
Hokki-ji Area → Tatsusayama Kofun is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tatsusayama Kofun to Yakushi-ji
Tatsusayama Kofun → Yakushi-ji is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yakushi-ji to Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun
Yakushi-ji → Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun to back through Yakushi-ji
Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun → back through Yakushi-ji is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yakushi-ji to back through Tatsusayama Kofun
back through Yakushi-ji → back through Tatsusayama Kofun is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tatsusayama Kofun to back through Hokki-ji Area
back through Tatsusayama 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 to Byodo-in
back through Hokki-ji Area → Byodo-in is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Ujigami-jinja and Hanzei-tenno-ryo Kofun · 296 km
- Genemonyama Kofun and Daigo-ji · 154 km
- Nagayama Kofun and Daigo-ji · 155 km
- Nintoku-tenno-ryo Kofun and Daigo-ji · 155 km