Why this ride
153 km from Nara-shi to Nara-shi, about 2 h 45 of riding. On the way it passes Fujiwara Palace Site, Horyu-ji Area, Yashimazuka Kofun and Tatsusayama Kofun.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gangô-ji and Tatsusayama Kofun
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 153 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 45
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Gangô-ji → Fujiwara Palace Site
23 km on Gangô-ji → Fujiwara Palace Site.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 23 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Gangô-ji
Nara lives in the shadow of its grand temples, Todai-ji and Kofuku-ji, but Gango-ji is the one with the best sense of age. It started life in Asuka, in the late sixth century, as Asuka-dera, the first true Buddhist temple in Japan, founded by the powerful Soga clan. When the capital moved to Heijo-kyo in the early eighth century, the monks followed, and the temple was rebuilt on a new site in what is now the Naramachi district, with some of the original roof tiles carried across the plain and reused. You can still pick out the older, darker tiles on the roof of the main hall, a faint line of continuity across thirteen centuries.
Read the complete Gangô-ji write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gangô-ji is where the day begins. Next is Fujiwara Palace Site.
2. Fujiwara Palace Site
Before Nara, before Kyoto, there was Fujiwara-kyō. In 694, the Empress Jitō moved the Japanese court to a new capital in the southern part of the Nara basin, the first in Japan to be laid out on a Chinese-style grid of streets, with the imperial palace at its centre. It lasted only sixteen years, until the court moved north to Nara in 710, but it marked a turning point in the history of the Japanese state.
Read the complete Fujiwara Palace Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fujiwara Palace Site comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Horyu-ji Area.
3. Hōryū-ji Area
The buildings at Hōryū-ji are around thirteen hundred years old, and some of them are among the oldest wooden structures anywhere in the world. Founded in the early seventh century by Prince Shōtoku, a regent remembered as a champion of Buddhism and a founding figure of the Japanese state, the temple was rebuilt after a fire later in the same century, and parts of that rebuilding still stand. In 1993 it became one of the first sites in Japan to be listed by UNESCO, as the Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area.
Read the complete Horyu-ji Area write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Horyu-ji Area. Next is Yashimazuka Kofun.
4. Yashimazuka Kofun
In the southeastern suburbs of Osaka, among houses, rice paddies and railway lines, rise wooded mounds surrounded by moats. These are kofun, burial mounds built for the elite of ancient Japan between the third and seventh centuries, and the Furuichi group around Fujiidera and Habikino contains some of the largest in the country. Yashimazuka is one of the smaller mounds in the group, standing close to much bigger keyhole-shaped tombs attributed to emperors and empresses. Together with the Mozu group in Sakai, these mounds were listed by UNESCO in 2019 as the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group.
Read the complete Yashimazuka Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yashimazuka Kofun, about halfway. Next is Tatsusayama Kofun.
5. 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
Tatsusayama Kofun sits at 78 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yashimazuka Kofun.
6. back through Yashimazuka Kofun
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yashimazuka Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Yashimazuka Kofun comes up about 91 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Horyu-ji Area.
7. back through Horyu-ji Area
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Horyu-ji Area write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 106 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Horyu-ji Area. Next is back through Fujiwara Palace Site.
8. back through Fujiwara Palace Site
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fujiwara Palace Site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fujiwara Palace Site, late in the day. Next is Gangô-ji.
9. Gangô-ji
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gangô-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 153 km.
Leg by leg
Gangô-ji to Fujiwara Palace Site
Gangô-ji → Fujiwara Palace Site is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fujiwara Palace Site to Horyu-ji Area
Fujiwara Palace Site → Horyu-ji Area is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hōryū-ji Area to Yashimazuka Kofun
Hōryū-ji Area → Yashimazuka Kofun is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yashimazuka Kofun to Tatsusayama Kofun
Yashimazuka Kofun → Tatsusayama Kofun is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tatsusayama Kofun to back through Yashimazuka Kofun
Tatsusayama Kofun → back through Yashimazuka Kofun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yashimazuka Kofun to back through Horyu-ji Area
back through Yashimazuka Kofun → back through Horyu-ji Area is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Horyu-ji Area to back through Fujiwara Palace Site
back through Horyu-ji Area → back through Fujiwara Palace Site is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fujiwara Palace Site to Gangô-ji
back through Fujiwara Palace Site → Gangô-ji is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.