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.
457 km from Nara-shi to Nara-shi, about 7 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Mukohakayama Kofun, Kôyasan - Jison-in, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K and Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha. The line favours views over speed.
In the early eighth century, when Nara became Japan's first permanent capital, the powerful Fujiwara clan moved their family temple here, and Kofuku-ji became one of the great temples of the city, wealthy enough to maintain its own warrior monks. Its five storey pagoda, rebuilt in the fifteenth century after one of several fires, is the second tallest wooden pagoda in Japan and a symbol of Nara, reflected in the Sarusawa pond below. The Central Golden Hall was rebuilt and reopened in 2018, and the National Treasure Museum holds the famous statue of Ashura, a three faced, six armed guardian with a strikingly human expression. Kofuku-ji is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara World Heritage Site. The pagoda is undergoing a long restoration and may be wrapped in scaffolding when you visit.
Read the complete Kôfuku-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôfuku-ji is where the day begins. Next is Mukohakayama Kofun.
Satellite tombs are the quiet puzzle of Furuichi. Beside every great mound there seems to be a scatter of small ones, some round, some square, and some keyhole-shaped, and Mukohakayama is one of the mounds clustered around the tomb of the emperor Ojin, a sizeable keyhole in its own right. Archaeologists reckon that the people buried in them were relatives and retainers of the ruler, which would make the whole area a vast family graveyard laid out around the king like a court around a throne. At the larger scale the Mozu-Furuichi tombs were listed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Mukohakayama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mukohakayama Kofun comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kôyasan - Jison-in.
Before you ride up to Mount Koya, the great mountain monastery of Shingon Buddhism, stop at its doorstep. Jison-in sits in the Kii river valley at Kudoyama, below the mountain, and it was founded by Kukai, the monk also known as Kobo Daishi, in the early ninth century as the administrative office and supply base for the new monastery above. Its most loved story concerns his mother. Women were barred from Koyasan for over a thousand years, so she lived here, and tradition says Kukai walked down nine times a month to visit her. That, the locals will tell you, is where the name Kudoyama, nine-times mountain, comes from.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Jison-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Kôyasan - Jison-in. 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, about halfway. 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.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha sits at 148 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 324 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kôyasan - Jison-in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Jison-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 375 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kôyasan - Jison-in. Next is back through Mukohakayama Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mukohakayama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mukohakayama Kofun, late in the day. Next is Kôfuku-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kôfuku-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 457 km.
Kôfuku-ji → Mukohakayama Kofun is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mukohakayama Kofun → Kôyasan - Jison-in is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Jison-in → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → back through Kôyasan - Jison-in is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kôyasan - Jison-in → back through Mukohakayama Kofun is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mukohakayama Kofun → Kôfuku-ji is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.