Kawara-dera Temple Site and Himeji-jo

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kawara-dera Temple Site

   Kawara-dera is one of the oldest temples in Japan, though you would not guess it from what remains. It was founded in the seventh century in the Asuka district, and it appears in early records as a significant monastery, linked to the imperial family. In the Nihon Shoki, the early chronicle of Japan, the funeral rites for Empress Saimei were held here in the year 661, and the temple was said to have grown into a great complex with a pagoda and a lecture hall. Over the centuries, as the capital moved to Nara and then to Kyoto, it declined, and today only foundation stones, a smaller modern hall and open fields are left.

   Read the complete Kawara-dera Temple Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kawara-dera Temple Site is where the day begins. Next is Byodo-in.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Himeji-jo.

3. 3. Himeji-jo

   Himeji Castle is the one that survived. Japan has a lot of reconstructed keeps, concrete inside and gift shop on the ground floor, but the big white donjon here is the real thing, largely as it stood in the early 1600s when Ikeda Terumasa rebuilt the place on the hill. It came through the bombing of 1945 and the Kobe earthquake of 1995 with the timbers intact, and it has been a World Heritage site since 1993. The plaster is so brilliantly white that people call it Hakuro-jo, the White Heron, and on a clear morning from the east side you can see why: the roofs stack up like a bird lifting off.

   Read the complete Himeji-jo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 176 km into the recorded legs you reach Himeji-jo. Next is back through Byodo-in.

4. 4. back through Byodo-in

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through Byodo-in, late in the day. Next is Kawara-dera Temple Site.

5. 5. Kawara-dera Temple Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kawara-dera Temple Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Kawara-dera Temple Site. That is the ride.