CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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-shi it runs 126 km to Kashihara-shi; allow about 1 h 52 of riding. On the way it passes Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji, Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji and back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Some mounded tombs have a name, a story and a signpost. Shōbuike has a pond. The tomb stands in Kashihara, in the flat, tilled country of the Nara basin, a large earthen mound from the late sixth or seventh century, and it is one of the big monuments of the period when the burial customs of the Yamato rulers were changing from the gigantic keyhole tombs of earlier centuries to smaller, more carefully built mounds with stone chambers. Scholars have suggested different candidates, as is common for these tombs.
Read the complete Shobuike Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shobuike Mounded Tomb is where the day begins. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji.
Every April, the hillsides of Yoshino turn pink and white as tens of thousands of cherry trees burst into bloom, and the narrow ridge-top town fills with visitors who come to see one of Japan's most famous blossom displays. But Yoshino is more than a flower show. It is the heart of Shugendō, a mountain religion that blends Buddhism, Shinto and ancient nature worship, and the Kimpusen-ji temple, with its enormous wooden main hall, the Zaō-dō, is its spiritual centre. The temple is part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, listed by UNESCO in 2004.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Ōminesan-ji is a temple on the summit of Mount Sanjō, one of the peaks of the Ōmine range in the heart of the Kii peninsula, and it holds a special place in Japanese religion. It is a centre of Shugendō, the mountain ascetic tradition that blends Buddhism, Shinto and older mountain worship, and its practitioners, the yamabushi, undergo arduous training on the ridges. The temple is famous for another reason too: the mountain is still closed to women by tradition, one of the last such places in Japan, which has become a subject of ongoing debate.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji. Next is back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji, late in the day. Next is Shobuike Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shobuike Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Shobuike Mounded Tomb. That is the ride.
Shobuike Mounded Tomb → Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji → Shobuike Mounded Tomb is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.