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.
A 320 km round trip from Kashihara - roughly 4 h 34 in the saddle. The stops in between: Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha and back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Yamato basin, in the middle of Nara prefecture, is where Japan's early rulers raised their great earthen tombs, and Kashihara sits at the heart of it. Around the third and fourth centuries and for several hundred years afterward, the leaders of the Yamato court were buried under mounds, many in a distinctive keyhole shape, a round tomb joined to a trapezoidal front. These are the kofun, which simply means old mound. They were ringed with clay cylinders called haniwa, some formed into the shapes of houses, horses, warriors and dancers, and many were surrounded by moats.
Read the complete Higashiumazuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Higashiumazuka Kofun 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 67 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 160 km into the recorded legs you reach Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha. 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 Higashiumazuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Higashiumazuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Higashiumazuka Kofun. That is the ride.
Higashiumazuka Kofun → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → Higashiumazuka Kofun is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.