Why this ride
From Shingū it runs 479 km to Shingū; allow about 6 h 36 of riding. The stops in between: Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N, Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji, Kitora Mounded Tomb and Tôshôdai-ji. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha and Tôshôdai-ji
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 479 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 36
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha
Shingū sits where the Kumano River meets the Pacific, and Hayatama Taisha stands in the middle of the town, a vermilion shrine among tall trees, so close to the ordinary streets that it feels like part of daily life. It is one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, and the legend of its founding is tied to a great rock above the town, Gotobiki-iwa, where the deity is said to have descended before moving to the shrine below. The rock is reached by a steep stone stairway through the woods and the view from it is wide and quiet.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha is where the day begins. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N.
2. Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N
The Kumano Kodō is a web of ancient pilgrimage trails across the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, leading to the three grand shrines of Kumano: Hongū, Hayatama and Nachi. For over a thousand years, emperors, aristocrats and ordinary pilgrims walked these paths through cedar and cypress forest, stopping at small subsidiary shrines along the way. The Nakahechi, the most popular of the routes, leaves the coast near Tanabe and climbs inland through the hills. It is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, listed by UNESCO in 2004, one of only two pilgrimage routes on the list along with the Camino de Santiago, with which it is twinned.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji.
3. Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 150 km into the recorded legs you reach Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji. Next is Kitora Mounded Tomb.
4. Kitora Mounded Tomb
Kitora is a small, round burial mound on a hillside in Asuka, the cradle of the Japanese state, south of Nara. From the outside, it looks like a grassy hump, unremarkable. Inside, when researchers inserted a fibre-optic camera in 1983, they found a stone chamber painted with some of the most extraordinary images in Japanese art: the four guardian animals of the cardinal directions, the black tortoise-snake of the north, the blue dragon of the east, the white tiger of the west and the red phoenix of the south, along with figures of the twelve zodiac animals with human bodies, and on the ceiling an astronomical chart showing the constellations, one of the oldest such star charts in the world. The tomb dates from the late seventh or early eighth century, and its occupant remains unknown. To preserve them, the paintings were removed from the walls and restored, and some are displayed at the Shijin no Yakata, a museum built next to the tomb.
Read the complete Kitora Mounded Tomb write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kitora Mounded Tomb, about halfway. Next is Tôshôdai-ji.
5. Tôshôdai-ji
Toshodai-ji exists because a blind monk would not give up. Ganjin, a Chinese master of Buddhist law, was invited to Japan in the eighth century to teach proper monastic ordination, and he tried to cross the sea five times, defeated by storms, pirates and official obstruction, until he went blind. On the sixth attempt, in 753, he arrived in Japan, and in 759 he founded this temple in Nara. His own ordination hall still stands in the grounds, and a dry-lacquer statue of him, said to be a faithful likeness, is kept at the temple and shown only occasionally.
Read the complete Tôshôdai-ji write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tôshôdai-ji sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kitora Mounded Tomb.
6. back through Kitora Mounded Tomb
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kitora Mounded Tomb write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kitora Mounded Tomb comes up about 271 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji.
7. back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 328 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji. Next is back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N.
8. back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N, late in the day. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha.
9. Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 479 km.
Leg by leg
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha to Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N
Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N to Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N → Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji to Kitora Mounded Tomb
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → Kitora Mounded Tomb is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kitora Mounded Tomb to Tôshôdai-ji
Kitora Mounded Tomb → Tôshôdai-ji is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tôshôdai-ji to back through Kitora Mounded Tomb
Tôshôdai-ji → back through Kitora Mounded Tomb is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kitora Mounded Tomb to back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji
back through Kitora Mounded Tomb → back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji to back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N
back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N to Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - N → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hayatama Taisha is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.