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.
348 km from Hōryūji to Hōryūji, about 5 h 01 of riding. On the way it passes Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja, Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha and back through Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hokki-ji Area is where the day begins. Next is Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja.
A hunter with two dogs, according to the legend, is why Koyasan exists. When the monk Kukai, later called Kobo Daishi, returned from studying in China in the early ninth century, he threw a ritual three-pronged object into the air and asked it to land on a site for a mountain monastery. He found it hanging in a pine tree on a high plateau in the Kii mountains, and there he met a hunter, the god Karibamyojin, who led him to the place with his dogs. The hunter's mother, the goddess Niutsuhime, is honoured at the shrine that guards the approach. Kukai founded his monastery in 816, and Koyasan has been the headquarters of Shingon Buddhism since.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja comes up about 63 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 174 km into the recorded legs you reach Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha. Next is back through Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja, late in the day. Next is Hokki-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hokki-ji Area. That is the ride.
Hokki-ji Area → Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 111 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → back through Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja is 111 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja → Hokki-ji Area is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.