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.
A 433 km round trip from Sakai - roughly 6 h 02 in the saddle. It goes by way of Motoyakushiji Temple Site, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I and Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. Long stretches are under trees.
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.
Nisanzai 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 34 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 82 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 - Nachi Primeval Forest.
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 sits at 177 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 257 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 350 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 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.
The route ends here after 433 km.
Nisanzai Kofun → Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 34 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 - Nachi Primeval Forest is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kumano Sanzan - Nachi Primeval Forest → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - I is 41 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 → Nisanzai Kofun is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.