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.
From Kashihara-shi it runs 434 km to Kashihara-shi; allow about 6 h 30 of riding. On the way it passes Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I and back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K. The line favours views over speed.
In the gentle hills of Asuka, south of Nara, the first capitals of Japan rose and fell in the sixth and seventh centuries, and the land is still dotted with the tombs of the powerful. Kengoshizuka is one of them, a mound on a low ridge that excavations revealed to be octagonal in shape, a form used for imperial tombs in that period. Inside were found twin burial chambers cut from stone, and many scholars believe it to be the tomb of Empress Saimei, who reigned twice in the seventh century, with her daughter buried beside her. Restoration work in recent years has given the mound back its original shape, faced with stones, so it is far more legible than many overgrown kofun.
Read the complete Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb is where the day begins. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K.
Mount Kōya is one of Japan's great sacred places, a high basin in the mountains of northern Wakayama where the monk Kūkai founded a monastic centre for Shingon Buddhism in the early ninth century. Today it is a town of over a hundred temples, many of which take in overnight guests, set among towering cedars. South of the summit plateau, deep in the forested ridges, run the old pilgrim trails that link Kōya with the Kumano shrines, part of the network inscribed by UNESCO as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I.
The Iseji is the eastern branch of the old pilgrimage roads to the three great Kumano shrines, running down the coast of the Kii Peninsula from the Grand Shrines of Ise to Kumano. For centuries, pilgrims followed it through forests and over passes, and stretches of its stone paving still survive in the hills, laid to keep the path usable in one of the rainiest parts of Japan. Owase, a little up the coast, regularly ranks among the wettest towns in the country, and the moss on the stones and the dripping cedar forests show it. The Iseji forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I. Next is back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K, late in the day. Next is Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb. That is the ride.
Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 141 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 142 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → Kengoshizuka Mounded Tomb is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.