Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô and Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
441 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 57
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 Tanabe it runs 441 km to Tanabe; allow about 5 h 57 of riding. It goes by way of Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K and back through Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô
The Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, is one of the most heavily forested and least populated parts of Japan, a knot of steep, cedar-covered mountains that has been a place of pilgrimage for more than a thousand years. The pilgrimage routes of Kumano, called the Kumano Kodo, were inscribed by UNESCO in 2004 together with the sacred sites of Koyasan and Yoshino and Omine, and the Ohechi route is the long mountain branch that starts near Tanabe, on the coast, about eleven kilometres from the point on your map.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô is where the day begins. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K.
3. Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K
Mount Kōya is one of Japan's great sacred places, a high basin in the mountains of northern Wakayama where the monk Kūkai founded a monastic centre for Shingon Buddhism in the early ninth century. Today it is a town of over a hundred temples, many of which take in overnight guests, set among towering cedars. South of the summit plateau, deep in the forested ridges, run the old pilgrim trails that link Kōya with the Kumano shrines, part of the network inscribed by UNESCO as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô to Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô → Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji to Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K
Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K to back through Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji
Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → back through Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji to Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô
back through Kumano Sanzan - Fudarakusan-ji → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - Ô is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.