Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi and Kurizuka Kofun
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
172 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 08
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.
It goes by way of Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja, Motoyakushiji Temple Site, Kurizuka Kofun and back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is where the day begins. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja.
2. 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
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Motoyakushiji Temple Site.
3. 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
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Motoyakushiji Temple Site. Next is Kurizuka Kofun.
4. Kurizuka Kofun
South of Nara city, the plain is flat and green, with rice paddies in every direction and low, rounded mountains standing on its rim, and the first Japanese states grew here. Kashihara, on the southern side of the basin, sits near the old capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, where the court and the first lasting Buddhist temples took shape in the sixth and seventh centuries. Kurizuka is one of the many kofun, ancient burial mounds, scattered around the district, and it is a modest, tree-covered hump rather than a spectacular monument.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi closes the day.
Leg by leg
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi to Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja
Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja to Motoyakushiji Temple Site
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja → Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Motoyakushiji Temple Site to Kurizuka Kofun
Motoyakushiji Temple Site → Kurizuka Kofun is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kurizuka Kofun to back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site
Kurizuka Kofun → back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site to back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja
back through Motoyakushiji Temple Site → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja to Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpu-jinja → Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.