Otorizuka Kofun and Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
198 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 25
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.
From Kashihara it runs 198 km to Kashihara; allow about 3 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Motoyakushiji Temple Site, Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja, Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi and back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Otorizuka Kofun
Otorizuka is a small mound, and its name, which seems to mean the bird mound, is lovely. What I do know is the setting: a plain south-east of Osaka that holds one of the greatest concentrations of burial mounds in the world, in the Furuichi group, and a small mound like this is part of the supporting cast, a tomb for a person of lower rank who wished to lie near a king.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Otorizuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Motoyakushiji Temple Site.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Motoyakushiji Temple Site comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja.
3. Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja
Mount Yoshino, in the mountains of Nara Prefecture, is famous throughout Japan for one thing above all: cherry blossom. Some thirty thousand trees cover its slopes, planted over the centuries as offerings, and each spring they bloom in waves from the lower slopes to the summit. Kimpu Shrine, Kimpu-jinja, stands near the top of the mountain, in the area known as Oku Senbon, the inner thousand trees, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed Sacred Sites of the Kii Mountain Range.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi.
4. Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi
The Ômine Okugakemichi is not a road at all, at least not one you can ride. It is a mountain trail that runs for about a hundred kilometres along the spine of the Ômine range in the Kii peninsula, linking Yoshino in the north with Kumano in the south, over peaks, ridges and rock faces. For more than a thousand years, yamabushi, the mountain ascetics of the Shugendo tradition, have walked it as a spiritual practice, combining Buddhist, Shinto and older mountain beliefs, with rituals at sacred rocks, waterfalls and cliffs along the way. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, inscribed in 2004.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Otorizuka Kofun closes the day.
Leg by leg
Otorizuka Kofun to Motoyakushiji Temple Site
Otorizuka Kofun → Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Motoyakushiji Temple Site to Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja
Motoyakushiji Temple Site → Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja to Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja → Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi to back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja to back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja → back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site to Otorizuka Kofun
back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site → Otorizuka Kofun is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.