Enryaku-ji and Byodo-in starting at Ōtsu

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Enryaku-ji

   Mount Hiei rises between Kyoto and Lake Biwa, and in 788 a young monk named Saichō built a small hermitage on its slopes. It grew into Enryaku-ji, the headquarters of the Tendai school of Buddhism and one of the most powerful religious institutions in Japanese history. Many of the founders of later Buddhist schools, including Hōnen, Shinran, Dōgen and Nichiren, studied here. At its height, the mountain held thousands of temples, and the monastery maintained an army of warrior monks who regularly descended on Kyoto to intimidate the court. In 1571, the warlord Oda Nobunaga, tired of their political meddling, attacked the mountain, burned the temples and killed thousands of people. The monastery was rebuilt in the following decades, and today its halls are spread across the forested summit in three main areas, connected by footpaths and roads. The main hall, the Konpon Chūdō, houses a lamp said to have burned continuously for over a thousand years. Enryaku-ji is part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

   Read the complete Enryaku-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Enryaku-ji is where the day begins. Next is Ujigami-jinja.

2. 2. Ujigami-jinja

   Uji is a small city on the river of the same name, south of Kyoto, and it holds two treasures that face each other across the water. On the west bank stands the Byōdō-in, a temple whose Phoenix Hall, built in 1053, appears on the Japanese ten-yen coin. On the east bank, up a quiet lane, is Ujigami-jinja, a modest shrine whose main hall is considered the oldest surviving Shinto shrine building in Japan, dating from the late Heian period, in the eleventh century. Its simple wooden structure, with a cypress-bark roof, stands in a small courtyard surrounded by trees, and it is far less crowded than the Byōdō-in. Both are part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

   Read the complete Ujigami-jinja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ujigami-jinja comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rokuon-ji.

3. 3. Rokuon-ji

   The Golden Pavilion has been burned down at least once, and that is part of why it feels so intense. Rokuon-ji, the temple most people call Kinkaku-ji, began as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who built it in the 1390s on the hillside of Kitayama in the north-west of Kyoto, and left instructions that after his death it should become a Zen temple. The three-storey pavilion on the lake is covered in gold leaf above the ground floor, each storey in a different architectural style, and topped with a bronze phoenix. In calm weather the reflection in the pond is perfect, and in winter, with snow on the roof, it is almost too much.

   Read the complete Rokuon-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Rokuon-ji. Next is Byodo-in.

4. 4. 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

   Byodo-in, about halfway. Next is back through Rokuon-ji.

5. 5. back through Rokuon-ji

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rokuon-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Rokuon-ji sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ujigami-jinja.

6. 6. back through Ujigami-jinja

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ujigami-jinja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Ujigami-jinja comes up about 121 km into the recorded legs. Next is Enryaku-ji.

7. 7. Enryaku-ji

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Enryaku-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Enryaku-ji closes the day.