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.
420 km from Sakai to Sakai, about 5 h 47 of riding. The stops in between: Motoyakushiji Temple Site, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I and Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Nagatsuka is another of the small tombs that dot Sakai's old Mozu cemetery, and it is a place to think about the city as a whole. Before it was a place of keyhole tombs it was already a harbour, and it remained one for centuries. In the sixteenth century Sakai was the greatest port in Japan and a self-governing merchant town, whose leading citizens negotiated with the warlords, imported guns and silk from abroad, and were among the first to meet Europeans. When Oda Nobunaga demanded a large sum of money from Sakai in 1568, the merchants eventually paid up and kept their trade, and the city became a source of firearms for his campaigns. Much of old Sakai was later burned and then flattened again in the Second World War, which is why so little remains.
Read the complete Nagatsuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nagatsuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Motoyakushiji Temple Site.
In the late seventh century, before Nara became the capital, the Japanese court was based in the Asuka region, south of the Nara basin, and the Emperor Tenmu ordered the construction of a great temple, Yakushi-ji, dedicated to the Buddha of healing, to pray for the recovery of his sick empress. The temple was built in the new capital of Fujiwara-kyō, and when the court moved to Nara in 710, a new Yakushi-ji was built there. The original temple, known as Motoyakushiji, the original Yakushi-ji, was gradually abandoned.
Read the complete Motoyakushiji Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Motoyakushiji Temple Site comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Ōminesan-ji is a temple on the summit of Mount Sanjō, one of the peaks of the Ōmine range in the heart of the Kii peninsula, and it holds a special place in Japanese religion. It is a centre of Shugendō, the mountain ascetic tradition that blends Buddhism, Shinto and older mountain worship, and its practitioners, the yamabushi, undergo arduous training on the ridges. The temple is famous for another reason too: the mountain is still closed to women by tradition, one of the last such places in Japan, which has become a subject of ongoing debate.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. 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, about halfway. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji.
Fudarakusan-ji is a small temple on the coast of the Kii Peninsula, in the town of Nachikatsuura, and its odd history is a sea journey. In the old days some monks believed Fudaraku, the paradise of the bodhisattva Kannon, lay far across the ocean to the south, and from this beach they set off in boats nailed shut, with a little food and water, to sail toward it and not come back. The practice is called Fudaraku Tokai, and the temple remembers the monks who made the voyage, which gives the sea in front of it a haunting quality.
Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji sits at 180 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 244 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 337 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. Next is back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Motoyakushiji Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site, late in the day. Next is Nagatsuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nagatsuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 420 km.
Nagatsuka Kofun → Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Motoyakushiji Temple Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I → Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site → Nagatsuka Kofun is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.