Ujigami-jinja and Fujiwara Palace Site

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ujigami-jinja

   Uji is a small city on the river of the same name, south of Kyoto, and it holds two treasures that face each other across the water. On the west bank stands the Byōdō-in, a temple whose Phoenix Hall, built in 1053, appears on the Japanese ten-yen coin. On the east bank, up a quiet lane, is Ujigami-jinja, a modest shrine whose main hall is considered the oldest surviving Shinto shrine building in Japan, dating from the late Heian period, in the eleventh century. Its simple wooden structure, with a cypress-bark roof, stands in a small courtyard surrounded by trees, and it is far less crowded than the Byōdō-in. Both are part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

   Read the complete Ujigami-jinja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ujigami-jinja is where the day begins. Next is Rokuon-ji.

2. 2. Rokuon-ji

   The Golden Pavilion has been burned down at least once, and that is part of why it feels so intense. Rokuon-ji, the temple most people call Kinkaku-ji, began as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who built it in the 1390s on the hillside of Kitayama in the north-west of Kyoto, and left instructions that after his death it should become a Zen temple. The three-storey pavilion on the lake is covered in gold leaf above the ground floor, each storey in a different architectural style, and topped with a bronze phoenix. In calm weather the reflection in the pond is perfect, and in winter, with snow on the roof, it is almost too much.

   Read the complete Rokuon-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rokuon-ji comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nara Palace Site.

3. 3. Nara Palace Site

   For most of the eighth century, Nara was the capital of Japan. The city, then called Heijō-kyō, was laid out on a grid modelled on the Chinese capital Chang'an, and at its northern end stood the imperial palace, Heijō-kyū, a vast compound of halls, offices and gardens. When the court moved away at the end of the century, the palace was abandoned and the land eventually returned to rice fields. Today the Nara Palace Site is a huge open space on the western side of the modern city, part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.

   Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Nara Palace Site. Next is Fujiwara Palace Site.

4. 4. Fujiwara Palace Site

   Before Nara, before Kyoto, there was Fujiwara-kyō. In 694, the Empress Jitō moved the Japanese court to a new capital in the southern part of the Nara basin, the first in Japan to be laid out on a Chinese-style grid of streets, with the imperial palace at its centre. It lasted only sixteen years, until the court moved north to Nara in 710, but it marked a turning point in the history of the Japanese state.

   Read the complete Fujiwara Palace Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fujiwara Palace Site, about halfway. Next is back through Nara Palace Site.

5. 5. back through Nara Palace Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Nara Palace Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Nara Palace Site sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rokuon-ji.

6. 6. back through Rokuon-ji

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rokuon-ji write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Rokuon-ji comes up about 165 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ujigami-jinja.

7. 7. Ujigami-jinja

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ujigami-jinja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ujigami-jinja closes the day.