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 Sakai it runs 205 km to Sakai; allow about 3 h 18 of riding. The stops in between: Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area, Tachibana-dera Temple Site, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On the map, Komoyamazuka looks like a green thumbprint pressed into the urban sprawl of Sakai, and that is not far off the truth. It is one of the keyhole-shaped burial mounds in the great tomb cluster that gives the city its place on the World Heritage list, an old mound, likely from the fifth century, wearing a moat and a crown of trees. Nobody is quite sure who lies inside many of these mounds, since archaeologists have rarely been allowed to dig, and the names we use are often a mix of old tradition and later guesswork.
Read the complete Komoyamazuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Komoyamazuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
If you want to stand in front of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, this is the place. Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple in the town of Ikaruga south-west of Nara, was founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, and although it burned and was rebuilt not long after, its central buildings, including the main hall and the five-storey pagoda, date from around the end of the seventh century. They were among the first sites in Japan inscribed by UNESCO, in 1993.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tachibana-dera Temple Site.
Asuka is where Japan as a state began to take shape, and Tachibana-dera sits right in the middle of it, among rice paddies and low hills in a small valley south of Nara. Tradition holds that Prince Shōtoku, the regent who promoted Buddhism and wrote Japan's first constitution in the early seventh century, was born here, and the temple claims to have been founded by him. The present buildings are much later, but the site is ancient, and the atmosphere of the quiet temple grounds, with their wooden halls, gravel courtyards and a curious stone carved with two faces, one good and one evil, is very special.
Read the complete Tachibana-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Tachibana-dera Temple Site. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Ōminesan-ji is a temple on the summit of Mount Sanjō, one of the peaks of the Ōmine range in the heart of the Kii peninsula, and it holds a special place in Japanese religion. It is a centre of Shugendō, the mountain ascetic tradition that blends Buddhism, Shinto and older mountain worship, and its practitioners, the yamabushi, undergo arduous training on the ridges. The temple is famous for another reason too: the mountain is still closed to women by tradition, one of the last such places in Japan, which has become a subject of ongoing debate.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, about halfway. Next is back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tachibana-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site sits at 122 km, about halfway. Next is back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 175 km into the recorded legs. Next is Komoyamazuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Komoyamazuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Komoyamazuka Kofun closes the day.
Komoyamazuka Kofun → Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Tachibana-dera Temple Site is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tachibana-dera Temple Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site → back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Komoyamazuka Kofun is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.