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.
A 374 km round trip from Kōya - roughly 6 h 02 in the saddle. On the way it passes Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi, Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb, Tôdai-ji and Daigo-ji. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Getting to Kōyasan feels like a pilgrimage even on a motorcycle. The roads climb out of the Kinokawa valley through dense cedar forest, switchback after switchback, until you emerge onto a high basin at around eight hundred metres where a whole town of temples has grown up. The monk Kūkai, known after his death as Kōbō Daishi, founded the monastery here in the early ninth century as the centre of Shingon Buddhism, and Kongōbu-ji is the head temple of the sect. Its halls, painted sliding doors and the large rock garden are worth an unhurried visit, and the whole mountain is part of the UNESCO listing of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is where the day begins. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi.
The Ômine Okugakemichi is not a road at all, at least not one you can ride. It is a mountain trail that runs for about a hundred kilometres along the spine of the Ômine range in the Kii peninsula, linking Yoshino in the north with Kumano in the south, over peaks, ridges and rock faces. For more than a thousand years, yamabushi, the mountain ascetics of the Shugendo tradition, have walked it as a spiritual practice, combining Buddhist, Shinto and older mountain beliefs, with rituals at sacred rocks, waterfalls and cliffs along the way. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, inscribed in 2004.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb.
The mound itself is easy to miss: a small, round hump of grass in a quiet corner of the Asuka countryside, surrounded by rice fields and persimmon trees. What made it famous is what was inside. In 1972, archaeologists opened a stone chamber here and found painted walls, with women in bright, flowing robes, a procession of men, and the guardian animals of the four directions, among them the Blue Dragon and the White Tiger. The paintings date from around the end of the seventh century or the start of the eighth, and show the strong influence of Korea and China on the early Japanese court. It was the first wall painting of its kind found in Japan and caused a sensation.
Read the complete Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb. Next is Tôdai-ji.
Nothing quite prepares you for the scale of Tōdai-ji. You walk through the great Nandaimon gate, past two fierce wooden guardian kings carved in the thirteenth century by Unkei, Kaikei and their workshop, and there it is: the Daibutsuden, the Great Buddha Hall, for centuries the largest wooden building in the world, even though the current structure, rebuilt in the early eighteenth century, is smaller than the original. Inside sits the Daibutsu, a bronze Buddha some fifteen metres tall, commissioned by Emperor Shōmu and consecrated in 752 with a ceremony that drew monks from as far away as India. The temple is part of the UNESCO listing of Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.
Read the complete Tôdai-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tôdai-ji, about halfway. Next is Daigo-ji.
The oldest building in Kyoto does not stand in the city centre but in the southeastern hills, at the temple of Daigo-ji: a five storey pagoda completed in 951, which has survived fires, earthquakes and wars that destroyed almost everything else of its age in the city. The temple was founded in the ninth century on Mount Daigo, and its grounds spread from the foot of the mountain to the summit, linked by a steep path, with halls, gardens and sub temples along the way. It is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Daigo-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Daigo-ji sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tôdai-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tôdai-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tôdai-ji comes up about 220 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 251 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb. Next is back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi, late in the day. Next is Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 374 km.
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb → Tôdai-ji is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tôdai-ji → Daigo-ji is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Daigo-ji → back through Tôdai-ji is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tôdai-ji → back through Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.