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 Yoshino-chō it runs 198 km to Yoshino-chō; allow about 3 h 03 of riding. It goes by way of Kitora Mounded Tomb, Horyu-ji Area, Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb and back through Horyu-ji Area. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is where the day begins. Next is Kitora Mounded Tomb.
Kitora is a small, round burial mound on a hillside in Asuka, the cradle of the Japanese state, south of Nara. From the outside, it looks like a grassy hump, unremarkable. Inside, when researchers inserted a fibre-optic camera in 1983, they found a stone chamber painted with some of the most extraordinary images in Japanese art: the four guardian animals of the cardinal directions, the black tortoise-snake of the north, the blue dragon of the east, the white tiger of the west and the red phoenix of the south, along with figures of the twelve zodiac animals with human bodies, and on the ceiling an astronomical chart showing the constellations, one of the oldest such star charts in the world. The tomb dates from the late seventh or early eighth century, and its occupant remains unknown. To preserve them, the paintings were removed from the walls and restored, and some are displayed at the Shijin no Yakata, a museum built next to the tomb.
Read the complete Kitora Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kitora Mounded Tomb comes up about 43 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 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Horyu-ji Area. Next is Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb.
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, 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 sits at 113 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kitora Mounded Tomb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kitora Mounded Tomb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kitora Mounded Tomb comes up about 155 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji closes the day.
Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji → Kitora Mounded Tomb is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kitora Mounded Tomb → Horyu-ji Area is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hōryū-ji Area → Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb → back through Horyu-ji Area is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Horyu-ji Area → back through Kitora Mounded Tomb is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kitora Mounded Tomb → Yoshino and Ômine - Ôminesan-ji is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.