Why this ride
A 238 km round trip from Hirado - roughly 9 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes Villages on Kuroshima Island, Ono Village in Sotome and Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado and Ono Village in Sotome · 155 km from Hirado
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 238 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 9 h 59
- 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
Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado → Villages on Kuroshima Isl
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 32 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 62 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado
Hirado is an island off the northwest coast of Kyushu, connected to the mainland by a bright red suspension bridge, and for a brief moment in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was one of Japan's windows on the world. Portuguese traders arrived in 1550, followed by Jesuit missionaries, and later the Dutch and English East India Companies set up trading posts here. When Christianity was banned in the early seventeenth century and foreign trade was moved to Nagasaki, the Christians of Hirado went underground. Kasuga, a farming village on the western side of the island, is one of the places where these Hidden Christians, the Kakure Kirishitan, maintained their faith in secret for more than two centuries, outwardly following Buddhism and Shinto while worshipping Christian images disguised as Buddhist statues and reciting prayers in a garbled mix of Latin, Portuguese and Japanese. The village and the sacred mountain of Yasumandake above it are part of the UNESCO listing of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region.
Read the complete Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado is where the day begins. Next is Villages on Kuroshima Island.
2. Villages on Kuroshima Island
For more than two centuries after Christianity was banned in Japan in the early seventeenth century, small communities of believers kept their faith in secret, disguising prayers as Buddhist chants and images of the Virgin Mary as Buddhist figures. Kuroshima, a small island off the coast of Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture, was one of the places where these hidden Christians lived and farmed, and when the ban was lifted in the 1870s they emerged openly. Their villages are part of the UNESCO listing of Hidden Christian sites in the Nagasaki region, listed in 2018.
Read the complete Villages on Kuroshima Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villages on Kuroshima Island comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ono Village in Sotome.
3. Ono Village in Sotome
For more than two centuries Christianity was banned in Japan, and in the villages along the Sotome coast north of Nagasaki, communities practised their faith in secret, disguising prayers as Buddhist chants and hiding images of the Virgin as the bodhisattva Kannon. These were the Hidden Christians, the Kakure Kirishitan, and their villages, including Ono, are part of the World Heritage listing of Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region, inscribed in 2018. At Ono the small Ono church, built by the French missionary Marc Marie de Rotz in the late nineteenth century after the ban was lifted, has thick walls built in a local technique of stones bound with mortar, known as de Rotz walls.
Read the complete Ono Village in Sotome write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Ono Village in Sotome. Next is back through Villages on Kuroshima Island.
4. Back to Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villages on Kuroshima Island, late in the day. Next is Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado.
5. Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado to Villages on Kuroshima Island
Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado → Villages on Kuroshima Island is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villages on Kuroshima Island to Ono Village in Sotome
Villages on Kuroshima Island → Ono Village in Sotome is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ono Village in Sotome to Back to Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado
Ono Village in Sotome → Back to Kasuga Village and Sacred Places in Hirado is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.