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 208 km to Kashihara-shi; allow about 3 h 58 of riding. On the way it passes Horyu-ji Area, Nisanzai Kofun, Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja and back through Nisanzai Kofun. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The mound itself is easy to miss: a small, round hump of grass in a quiet corner of the Asuka countryside, surrounded by rice fields and persimmon trees. What made it famous is what was inside. In 1972, archaeologists opened a stone chamber here and found painted walls, with women in bright, flowing robes, a procession of men, and the guardian animals of the four directions, among them the Blue Dragon and the White Tiger. The paintings date from around the end of the seventh century or the start of the eighth, and show the strong influence of Korea and China on the early Japanese court. It was the first wall painting of its kind found in Japan and caused a sensation.
Read the complete Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb is where the day begins. Next is Horyu-ji Area.
The buildings at Hōryū-ji are around thirteen hundred years old, and some of them are among the oldest wooden structures anywhere in the world. Founded in the early seventh century by Prince Shōtoku, a regent remembered as a champion of Buddhism and a founding figure of the Japanese state, the temple was rebuilt after a fire later in the same century, and parts of that rebuilding still stand. In 1993 it became one of the first sites in Japan to be listed by UNESCO, as the Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area.
Read the complete Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hōryū-ji Area comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nisanzai Kofun.
In the middle of the sprawling city of Sakai, south of Osaka, a large keyhole-shaped mound rises above a ring of moats, covered in dense forest and surrounded by houses, roads and shops. This is the Nisanzai Kofun, a monumental tomb built in the fifth century for a member of the ruling elite of early Japan. It is one of the largest of the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a collection of burial mounds listed by UNESCO in 2019, which includes the enormous Daisen Kofun, traditionally attributed to the emperor Nintoku and one of the largest tombs in the world by area.
Read the complete Nisanzai Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Nisanzai Kofun. Next is Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja.
A hunter with two dogs, according to the legend, is why Koyasan exists. When the monk Kukai, later called Kobo Daishi, returned from studying in China in the early ninth century, he threw a ritual three-pronged object into the air and asked it to land on a site for a mountain monastery. He found it hanging in a pine tree on a high plateau in the Kii mountains, and there he met a hunter, the god Karibamyojin, who led him to the place with his dogs. The hunter's mother, the goddess Niutsuhime, is honoured at the shrine that guards the approach. Kukai founded his monastery in 816, and Koyasan has been the headquarters of Shingon Buddhism since.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja, about halfway. Next is back through Nisanzai Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nisanzai Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nisanzai Kofun sits at 131 km, about halfway. Next is back through Horyu-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Horyu-ji Area comes up about 181 km into the recorded legs. Next is Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb closes the day.
Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb → Horyu-ji Area is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hōryū-ji Area → Nisanzai Kofun is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nisanzai Kofun → Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Niutsuhime-jinja → back through Nisanzai Kofun is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nisanzai Kofun → back through Horyu-ji Area is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Horyu-ji Area → Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.