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.
A 211 km round trip from Sakurai - roughly 3 h 34 in the saddle. On the way it passes Yakushi-ji, Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun, Kôyasan - Jison-in and back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
South of the modern town of Sakurai, in the Asuka region of Nara Prefecture, the grass and low walls of Yamada-dera mark the ruins of what was once a very grand temple. It was founded in the 640s by Soga no Kurayamada Ishikawamaro, a powerful minister of the Soga clan, who was caught up in court intrigue and is said to have taken his own life at the temple in 649, after being accused of treason. The story gives the quiet site a sad edge. In later excavations, archaeologists uncovered the foundation of the main hall and a long covered corridor whose timbers had collapsed and been buried in place, one of the best-preserved examples of seventh-century temple architecture in Japan.
Read the complete Yamada-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yamada-dera Temple Site is where the day begins. Next is Yakushi-ji.
Yakushi-ji is one of the great temples of Nara, the capital of Japan in the eighth century. It was founded by Emperor Tenmu in the late seventh century, praying for the recovery of his ill empress, and moved to its present site when the capital moved to Nara in 710. Dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing, it is part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. The East Pagoda, which has stood since the eighth century, is one of the few surviving buildings from that era, and its layered roofs, with smaller roofs between each storey, create a rhythm described by one admirer as frozen music.
Read the complete Yakushi-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yakushi-ji comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun.
On the plain south-east of Osaka, among suburbs, railway lines and car dealerships, the land is dotted with huge grassy mounds shaped like keyholes, surrounded by water-filled moats, and covered in trees. They are kofun, the burial mounds of Japan's early rulers and aristocrats, and the Tsudoshiroyama Kofun is one of them, in the Furuichi group, about two kilometres from the town of Kashiwara and not far from Habikino and Fujiidera. The group, together with the Mozu group in Sakai, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun. Next is Kôyasan - Jison-in.
Before you ride up to Mount Koya, the great mountain monastery of Shingon Buddhism, stop at its doorstep. Jison-in sits in the Kii river valley at Kudoyama, below the mountain, and it was founded by Kukai, the monk also known as Kobo Daishi, in the early ninth century as the administrative office and supply base for the new monastery above. Its most loved story concerns his mother. Women were barred from Koyasan for over a thousand years, so she lived here, and tradition says Kukai walked down nine times a month to visit her. That, the locals will tell you, is where the name Kudoyama, nine-times mountain, comes from.
Read the complete Kôyasan - Jison-in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kôyasan - Jison-in, about halfway. Next is back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun sits at 131 km, about halfway. Next is back through Yakushi-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yakushi-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Yakushi-ji comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yamada-dera Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yamada-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yamada-dera Temple Site closes the day.
Yamada-dera Temple Site → Yakushi-ji is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Yakushi-ji → Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun → Kôyasan - Jison-in is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kôyasan - Jison-in → back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tsudo-shiroyama Kofun → back through Yakushi-ji is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Yakushi-ji → Yamada-dera Temple Site is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.