Enryaku-ji and Byodo-in

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 Hongan-ji.

2. 2. Hongan-ji

   Kyoto's Hongan-ji, in the middle of the city a short walk from the main railway station, is a temple of the Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism, the largest branch of Buddhism in Japan, and one of the most important buildings in the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto inscribed by UNESCO in 1994. The city of one and a half million people spreads in every direction, and it is no place for fast riding, but the temple is one of the quietest and most human of the great monuments.

   Read the complete Hongan-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Hongan-ji comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ujigami-jinja.

3. 3. 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

   about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Ujigami-jinja. Next is Nijo-jo.

4. 4. Nijo-jo

   Nijo Castle is not really a castle, in the sense of a stronghold, but a palace dressed up as one. The first shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, Tokugawa Ieyasu, built it in 1603 as his residence in Kyoto, to show the emperor and the nobles who held real power in Japan, and his grandson Iemitsu added to it in the 1620s. The Ninomaru Palace, the main building, has long corridors with floors that squeak like nightingales when walked on, a feature meant to warn of intruders, and rooms covered in gold-leaf screens painted with tigers, pines and eagles by the Kano school. The style was intended to impress and intimidate visiting lords.

   Read the complete Nijo-jo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Nijo-jo, about halfway. Next is Byodo-in.

5. 5. 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 sits at 73 km, about halfway. Next is back through Nijo-jo.

6. 6. back through Nijo-jo

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Nijo-jo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Nijo-jo comes up about 95 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ujigami-jinja.

7. 7. 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

   about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ujigami-jinja. Next is back through Hongan-ji.

8. 8. back through Hongan-ji

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Hongan-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Hongan-ji, late in the day. Next is Enryaku-ji.

9. 9. 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

   The route ends here after 152 km.