Why this ride
A 199 km round trip from Nishifukuma - roughly 4 h 00 in the saddle. On the way it passes Onga river Pumping Station, Nakatsu-miya, The Imperial Steel Works and Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group and The Imperial Steel Works
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 199 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 00
- 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. Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group
In Fukuoka prefecture, on the shore of the Genkai Sea, a group of burial mounds records the power of the Munakata clan, the family who were priests and sea-lords of the strait between Kyushu and Korea. Shimbaru-Nuyama is a cluster of tombs from the fifth and sixth centuries, small and large mounds scattered over a low ridge, and it belongs to the World Heritage listing for Okinoshima and the associated sites of the Munakata region, inscribed in 2017. Okinoshima is a remote island in the channel where ritual offerings were made for centuries to pray for safe voyages, and no women are allowed to land, and men must purify themselves in the sea before setting foot on it.
Read the complete Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group is where the day begins. Next is Onga river Pumping Station.
2. Onga river Pumping Station
Steel needs water, a great deal of it, and in the early twentieth century the new Imperial Steel Works at Yawata in northern Kyushu needed more than the local streams could provide. The answer was this pumping station on the Onga river at Nakama, built in 1910, which drew water from the river and sent it through pipelines to the steel works. Remarkably, it is still in operation more than a century later. The red brick building with its tall windows is part of the UNESCO listing of Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, alongside shipyards, coal mines and iron works that tell the story of Japan's dramatic transformation into an industrial power.
Read the complete Onga river Pumping Station write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Onga river Pumping Station comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nakatsu-miya.
3. Nakatsu-miya
Munakata Taisha is not one shrine but three, spread across the sea off northern Kyushu, and Nakatsu-miya is the middle one. The boat leaves from the little harbour of Kōnominato and takes roughly a quarter of an hour, crossing water that was once the main sea lane between Japan and the Korean peninsula. Shrines were built at three points along that lane to protect sailors, and the middle one honours the goddess Tagitsuhime.
Read the complete Nakatsu-miya write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Nakatsu-miya. Next is The Imperial Steel Works.
4. The Imperial Steel Works
Japan's modern industry has a birthday, and in Kitakyushu they celebrate it with a rusting blast furnace. The Imperial Steel Works at Yawata began producing iron in 1901, a state-run enterprise financed with money from the war indemnity that China paid after the First Sino-Japanese War, and it was built to give a country that had just opened to the world its own supply of steel. German engineers advised on the early design. The works grew into the heart of the northern Kyushu industrial belt, and Yawata became a city that smelled of coke and smoke for most of a century.
Read the complete The Imperial Steel Works write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Imperial Steel Works, about halfway. Next is back through Nakatsu-miya.
5. Back to Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Nakatsu-miya sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Onga river Pumping Station.
6. back through Onga river Pumping Station
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Onga river Pumping Station write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Onga river Pumping Station comes up about 169 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group.
7. Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group closes the day.
Leg by leg
Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group to Onga river Pumping Station
Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group → Onga river Pumping Station is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Onga river Pumping Station to Nakatsu-miya
Onga river Pumping Station → Nakatsu-miya is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nakatsu-miya to The Imperial Steel Works
Nakatsu-miya → The Imperial Steel Works is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Imperial Steel Works to Back to Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group
The Imperial Steel Works → Back to Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Onga river Pumping Station to Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group
back through Onga river Pumping Station → Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.