Komuroyama Kofun and Hokki-ji Area

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Komuroyama Kofun

   Komuroyama belongs to the dense scatter of tombs on the Furuichi side of the Mozu-Furuichi group, in the part of southern Osaka where Habikino, Fujiidera and Matsubara run into one another. It is a modest mound in a district where the large tombs get all the attention, and most visitors pass it with a glance. That is probably the best way to understand the whole group: not as a set of monuments but as a landscape, where hills of earth, ponds, railway lines and houses all share the same plain.

   Read the complete Komuroyama Kofun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Komuroyama Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun.

2. 2. Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun

   You cannot really see a kofun. That is the first lesson of Richu-tenno-ryo, one of the great keyhole-shaped tombs of the Mozu group in Sakai, south of Osaka. These are burial mounds built in the fifth century for the early rulers of Japan, shaped like a keyhole with a round back and a wide front, and surrounded by moats. The Richu mound is about three hundred and sixty metres long, among the largest in the country, and you walk around the water on a path, catching glimpses through the trees of a green hill that looks like a wooded island. From the ground it simply looks like a park.

   Read the complete Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hokki-ji Area.

3. 3. Hokki-ji Area

   Ikaruga, a quiet town on the western edge of the Nara basin, is where Japanese Buddhist architecture begins. The temple of Hōryū-ji, founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, has wooden buildings counted among the oldest surviving in the world, and in 1993 the Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area became, along with Himeji Castle, the first Japanese sites on the UNESCO list. A short distance north, among rice fields and houses, Hokki-ji is a smaller temple with a single treasure: a three-storey pagoda completed in the early eighth century, the oldest of its type in Japan. Seen across the fields with the hills behind, it is a lovely, peaceful sight.

   Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Hokki-ji Area. Next is back through Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun.

4. 4. back through Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Richu-tenno-ryo Kofun, late in the day. Next is Komuroyama Kofun.

5. 5. Komuroyama Kofun

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Komuroyama Kofun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Komuroyama Kofun. That is the ride.