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CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama and Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
450 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 53
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis

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.

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Why this ride

450 km from Yoshino-chō to Yoshino-chō, about 6 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi, Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K, Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha and back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama

    Cherry trees are the whole point of Yoshino, and they are planted by the thousand up the side of a ridge in the mountains of Nara Prefecture, about five kilometres from the little town of Yoshino and an hour or two from Osaka. Over some three hundred years, pilgrims planted the sacred shidarezakura and the mountain cherry as offerings to the god of the mountain, and in the first half of April the slopes turn pink, white and green in four layers from the bottom to the top, a wave of flowering that rises up the hillside over about a fortnight.

    Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama is where the day begins. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi.

  2. 2. Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi

    The Ômine Okugakemichi is not a road at all, at least not one you can ride. It is a mountain trail that runs for about a hundred kilometres along the spine of the Ômine range in the Kii peninsula, linking Yoshino in the north with Kumano in the south, over peaks, ridges and rock faces. For more than a thousand years, yamabushi, the mountain ascetics of the Shugendo tradition, have walked it as a spiritual practice, combining Buddhist, Shinto and older mountain beliefs, with rituals at sacred rocks, waterfalls and cliffs along the way. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, inscribed in 2004.

    Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K.

  3. 3. Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K

    Mount Kōya is one of Japan's great sacred places, a high basin in the mountains of northern Wakayama where the monk Kūkai founded a monastic centre for Shingon Buddhism in the early ninth century. Today it is a town of over a hundred temples, many of which take in overnight guests, set among towering cedars. South of the summit plateau, deep in the forested ridges, run the old pilgrim trails that link Kōya with the Kumano shrines, part of the network inscribed by UNESCO as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.

    Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K. Next is Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha.

  4. 4. Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha

    Deep in the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, where forested ridges fold one behind another like the scenery in a woodblock print, stands the head shrine of the Kumano faith. Kumano Hongū Taisha is one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, and for over a thousand years emperors, aristocrats and ordinary pilgrims have walked here along the network of mountain trails known as the Kumano Kodō, now part of the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range listed by UNESCO.

    Read the complete Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha, about halfway. Next is back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K.

  5. 5. back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K sits at 135 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi.

  6. 6. back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi comes up about 387 km into the recorded legs. Next is Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama.

  7. 7. Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

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

    Planning note

    Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama closes the day.

Leg by leg

Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama to Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi

Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama → Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi to Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K

Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K to Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha

Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha to back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K

Kumano Sanzan - Kumano Hongû Taisha → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K to back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi

back through Pilgrimage Routes - Kumano Sankeimichi - K → back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi to Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama

back through Pilgrimage Routes - Ômine Okugakemichi → Yoshino and Ômine - Yoshinoyama is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

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