Kyo-o-gokoku-ji and Nara Palace Site

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kyo-o-gokoku-ji

   Kyoto has dozens of temples that could stand in for the city, but the five-storey pagoda of To-ji does the job better than any, because you can see it from the Shinkansen. Kyo-o-gokoku-ji is its formal name, and the temple was founded at the very beginning of the Heian capital, in the 790s, as one of two guardian temples placed on either side of the southern gate. Its pagoda, at about fifty-five metres, is the tallest wooden pagoda in Japan, and the version that stands today dates to the middle of the seventeenth century, rebuilt after fire by the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. Earlier ones were struck by lightning with some regularity, which shows the risk of building high in a thunderstorm country.

   Read the complete Kyo-o-gokoku-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kyo-o-gokoku-ji is where the day begins. Next is Enryaku-ji.

2. 2. Enryaku-ji

   Mount Hiei rises between Kyoto and Lake Biwa, and in 788 a young monk named Saichō built a small hermitage on its slopes. It grew into Enryaku-ji, the headquarters of the Tendai school of Buddhism and one of the most powerful religious institutions in Japanese history. Many of the founders of later Buddhist schools, including Hōnen, Shinran, Dōgen and Nichiren, studied here. At its height, the mountain held thousands of temples, and the monastery maintained an army of warrior monks who regularly descended on Kyoto to intimidate the court. In 1571, the warlord Oda Nobunaga, tired of their political meddling, attacked the mountain, burned the temples and killed thousands of people. The monastery was rebuilt in the following decades, and today its halls are spread across the forested summit in three main areas, connected by footpaths and roads. The main hall, the Konpon Chūdō, houses a lamp said to have burned continuously for over a thousand years. Enryaku-ji is part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

   Read the complete Enryaku-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Enryaku-ji comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nara Palace Site.

3. 3. Nara Palace Site

   For most of the eighth century, Nara was the capital of Japan. The city, then called Heijō-kyō, was laid out on a grid modelled on the Chinese capital Chang'an, and at its northern end stood the imperial palace, Heijō-kyū, a vast compound of halls, offices and gardens. When the court moved away at the end of the century, the palace was abandoned and the land eventually returned to rice fields. Today the Nara Palace Site is a huge open space on the western side of the modern city, part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.

   Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Nara Palace Site. Next is back through Enryaku-ji.

4. 4. back through Enryaku-ji

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Enryaku-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Enryaku-ji, late in the day. Next is Kyo-o-gokoku-ji.

5. 5. Kyo-o-gokoku-ji

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kyo-o-gokoku-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Kyo-o-gokoku-ji. That is the ride.