Why this ride
It goes by way of Villages on Kashiragashima Island, Egami Village on Naru Island and back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island and Egami Village on Naru Island
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 217 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 17 h 02
- 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. Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island
Nozaki is a long, steep island in the Goto archipelago, off the western coast of Kyushu, and almost nobody lives there now. In the nineteenth century, Christians who had kept their faith secretly for over two hundred years of persecution under the Tokugawa shogunate settled on the island, farming its steep slopes alongside the community that served a Shinto shrine. When the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873, they built a church, and the brick church of Nokubi, completed in 1908, still stands on a hill above the sea. The island and its abandoned villages are a piece of the World Heritage property for Hidden Christian sites in the Nagasaki region.
Read the complete Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island is where the day begins. Next is Villages on Kashiragashima Island.
2. Villages on Kashiragashima Island
Kashiragashima is a scrap of rock off the northeast coast of Nakadōri, in the Gotō Islands west of Nagasaki, and for a long time nobody wanted to live there. In the nineteenth century the island was used as a place to isolate smallpox patients, and that very isolation drew a small group of Hidden Christians, Japanese Catholics who had kept their faith in secret through more than two centuries of persecution. They settled in a cove, farmed the steep slopes and fished. After the ban on Christianity was lifted, they built a church out of the local sandstone, quarried and carried by hand, under the direction of the master builder Tetsukawa Yosuke, who designed many churches across the region. Completed in 1919, it is a sturdy, beautiful building, and the village is part of the UNESCO listing of Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region, inscribed in 2018.
Read the complete Villages on Kashiragashima Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villages on Kashiragashima Island comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Egami Village on Naru Island.
3. Egami Village on Naru Island
Egami is a small Catholic church on Naru Island in the Goto archipelago, off western Kyushu, and its story is one of the most remarkable in the history of Japanese Christianity. After missionaries arrived in the sixteenth century, the shogunate banned the faith and for about two and a half centuries persecuted believers. Some communities went underground, hiding their rosaries and their prayers in the guise of Buddhist or Shinto customs, and became known as the Hidden Christians. In the Goto islands, families who had fled from Nagasaki in the late eighteenth century cleared poor land and kept their faith quietly, and when the ban was lifted in the 1870s they came into the open.
Read the complete Egami Village on Naru Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Egami Village on Naru Island. Next is back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island.
4. back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villages on Kashiragashima Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island, late in the day. Next is Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island.
5. Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island to Villages on Kashiragashima Island
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island → Villages on Kashiragashima Island is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villages on Kashiragashima Island to Egami Village on Naru Island
Villages on Kashiragashima Island → Egami Village on Naru Island is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Egami Village on Naru Island to back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island
Egami Village on Naru Island → back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island to Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island
back through Villages on Kashiragashima Island → Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.