Why this ride
From Kashihara it runs 89 km to Kashihara; allow about 1 h 48 of riding. The stops in between: Dogameyama Kofun, Hokki-ji Area and back through Dogameyama Kofun. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Nakayamazuka Kofun and Hokki-ji Area
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 89 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 48
- 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. Nakayamazuka Kofun
From the road you would never know it was a tomb. Nakayamazuka is a keyhole-shaped burial mound in the Furuichi cluster of the great Mozu-Furuichi tomb group in southern Osaka Prefecture, a landscape of ancient mounds built between about the fourth and sixth centuries AD, when the Yamato rulers were consolidating power in Japan. UNESCO listed forty-nine of the tombs in 2019. Each is a hill of earth, once faced with stones and lined with clay figures called haniwa, surrounded by a moat, and many have a shape that can only be recognised from above: a round mound joined to a trapezoid, like the head and body of a keyhole.
Read the complete Nakayamazuka Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nakayamazuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Dogameyama Kofun.
2. Dogameyama Kofun
Sakai is the city of the bicycle, which should please a motorcyclist. The Shimano company, whose gears are on bikes all over the world, began here in 1921, and the city still has a long tradition of cycling, with a museum devoted to the machine near the Daisen Park. It seems apt that the same city should hold the biggest cluster of tombs in Japan. Dogameyama is one of the smaller mounds in the Mozu group, and like most of the small ones it is known more by its position than by any biography.
Read the complete Dogameyama Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dogameyama Kofun comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hokki-ji Area.
3. Hokki-ji Area
Ikaruga, a quiet town on the western edge of the Nara basin, is where Japanese Buddhist architecture begins. The temple of Hōryū-ji, founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, has wooden buildings counted among the oldest surviving in the world, and in 1993 the Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area became, along with Himeji Castle, the first Japanese sites on the UNESCO list. A short distance north, among rice fields and houses, Hokki-ji is a smaller temple with a single treasure: a three-storey pagoda completed in the early eighth century, the oldest of its type in Japan. Seen across the fields with the hills behind, it is a lovely, peaceful sight.
Read the complete Hokki-ji Area write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Hokki-ji Area. Next is back through Dogameyama Kofun.
4. back through Dogameyama Kofun
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dogameyama Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Dogameyama Kofun, late in the day. Next is Nakayamazuka Kofun.
5. Nakayamazuka Kofun
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nakayamazuka Kofun write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Nakayamazuka Kofun. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Nakayamazuka Kofun to Dogameyama Kofun
Nakayamazuka Kofun → Dogameyama Kofun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dogameyama Kofun to Hokki-ji Area
Dogameyama Kofun → Hokki-ji Area is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hokki-ji Area to back through Dogameyama Kofun
Hokki-ji Area → back through Dogameyama Kofun is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dogameyama Kofun to Nakayamazuka Kofun
back through Dogameyama Kofun → Nakayamazuka Kofun is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.