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.
From Kashihara-shi it runs 208 km to Kashihara-shi; allow about 3 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area, Nisanzai Kofun, Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja and back through Nisanzai Kofun. The line favours views over speed.
The Nara basin is dotted with burial mounds, called kofun, and they are the oldest big monuments of the Japanese state. Between the third and the seventh centuries, rulers and their clans were buried in earthen mounds, some shaped like a keyhole, some round and some square, surrounded by moats and decorated with rows of clay figures called haniwa. The famous giant tombs are in Osaka, but Nara holds some of the earliest and the later stone-chambered ones, and the area around Asuka and Kashihara has several.
Read the complete Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb is where the day begins. Next is Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
If you want to stand in front of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, this is the place. Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple in the town of Ikaruga south-west of Nara, was founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, and although it burned and was rebuilt not long after, its central buildings, including the main hall and the five-storey pagoda, date from around the end of the seventh century. They were among the first sites in Japan inscribed by UNESCO, in 1993.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nisanzai Kofun.
In the middle of the sprawling city of Sakai, south of Osaka, a large keyhole-shaped mound rises above a ring of moats, covered in dense forest and surrounded by houses, roads and shops. This is the Nisanzai Kofun, a monumental tomb built in the fifth century for a member of the ruling elite of early Japan. It is one of the largest of the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a collection of burial mounds listed by UNESCO in 2019, which includes the enormous Daisen Kofun, traditionally attributed to the emperor Nintoku and one of the largest tombs in the world by area.
Read the complete Nisanzai Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Nisanzai Kofun. Next is Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja.
A hunter with two dogs, according to the legend, is why Koyasan exists. When the monk Kukai, later called Kobo Daishi, returned from studying in China in the early ninth century, he threw a ritual three-pronged object into the air and asked it to land on a site for a mountain monastery. He found it hanging in a pine tree on a high plateau in the Kii mountains, and there he met a hunter, the god Karibamyojin, who led him to the place with his dogs. The hunter's mother, the goddess Niutsuhime, is honoured at the shrine that guards the approach. Kukai founded his monastery in 816, and Koyasan has been the headquarters of Shingon Buddhism since.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja, about halfway. Next is back through Nisanzai Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nisanzai Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nisanzai Kofun sits at 131 km, about halfway. Next is back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 180 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb closes the day.
Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb → Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Nisanzai Kofun is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nisanzai Kofun → Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja → back through Nisanzai Kofun is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nisanzai Kofun → back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Nakaoyama Mounded Tomb is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.