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.
448 km from Shingū to Shingū, about 6 h 15 of riding. On the way it passes Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I, Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi, Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji and Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. Much of it runs through woodland.
Rain made this place, and a lot of it. The Kii Peninsula sticks into the Pacific south of Osaka, steep, forested and very wet, with some of the heaviest rainfall in Japan, and the Nachi river tumbles down its flank in a cascade that has been worshipped for well over a thousand years. Nachi Falls drops one hundred and thirty-three metres in a single plunge, the tallest single-drop waterfall in the country, and the Shinto shrine at its foot, Hiro Jinja, treats the falls themselves as the god. Beside it, on a ridge above, Kumano Nachi Taisha and the Buddhist temple Seiganto-ji sit side by side, with a red three-storey pagoda that frames the white thread of water like a postcard. The two religions here have long lived in the same compound.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest is where the day begins. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I.
The Iseji is the eastern branch of the old pilgrimage roads to the three great Kumano shrines, running down the coast of the Kii Peninsula from the Grand Shrines of Ise to Kumano. For centuries, pilgrims followed it through forests and over passes, and stretches of its stone paving still survive in the hills, laid to keep the path usable in one of the rainiest parts of Japan. Owase, a little up the coast, regularly ranks among the wettest towns in the country, and the moss on the stones and the dripping cedar forests show it. The Iseji forms part of the UNESCO listing of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji, about halfway. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji.
Every April, the hillsides of Yoshino turn pink and white as tens of thousands of cherry trees burst into bloom, and the narrow ridge-top town fills with visitors who come to see one of Japan's most famous blossom displays. But Yoshino is more than a flower show. It is the heart of Shugendō, a mountain religion that blends Buddhism, Shinto and ancient nature worship, and the Kimpusen-ji temple, with its enormous wooden main hall, the Zaō-dō, is its spiritual centre. The temple is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, listed by UNESCO in 2004.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji sits at 172 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji comes up about 282 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 336 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi. Next is back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I, late in the day. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 448 km.
Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I → Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji → back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kôyasan - Kongôbu-ji → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I → Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.