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.
92 km from Yoshino-chō to Yoshino-chō, about 1 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress, Horyu-ji Area and back through Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress.
Under a modest round hill in the rice fields of Asuka lie two people who changed Japan: the Emperor Temmu, who died in 686, and his wife, who ruled after him as Empress Jito. Temmu had come to power by winning a short and bloody civil war in 672, the Jinshin disturbance, after hiding for a while in the mountains of Yoshino. Jito, who died in 702, was cremated, unusually for her time, and her ashes were laid beside her husband's. The tomb is octagonal, an echo of the imperial throne's shape, and a deliberate rank marker in the burial customs of the late seventh century.
Read the complete Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 46 km into the recorded legs you reach Horyu-ji Area. Next is back through Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress, late in the day. Next is 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 at Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji. That is the ride.
Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji → Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress → Horyu-ji Area is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hōryū-ji Area → back through Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mounded Tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress → Yoshino and Ômine - Kimpusen-ji is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.