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 168 km round trip from Sakai - roughly 2 h 55 in the saddle. It goes by way of Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area, Tachibana-dera Temple Site, Kasuga-Taisha and Kasugayama Primeval Fore and back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site. The line favours views over speed.
Mozu is an old word for the shrike, a small predatory bird that impales its prey on thorns, and the name belongs to the stretch of Sakai where the biggest tombs lie. A chronicle tells how, when workers were building the tomb of Emperor Nintoku in the fifth century, a deer suddenly fell dead on the site, and a shrike flew out of its ear. The story is a legend, of course, but it gave the district its name, and it hints at how strange and mysterious these monuments seemed even to later Japanese.
Read the complete Zenizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zenizuka Kofun is where the day begins. Next is Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
If you want to stand in front of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, this is the place. Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple in the town of Ikaruga south-west of Nara, was founded by Prince Shōtoku in the early seventh century, and although it burned and was rebuilt not long after, its central buildings, including the main hall and the five-storey pagoda, date from around the end of the seventh century. They were among the first sites in Japan inscribed by UNESCO, in 1993.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tachibana-dera Temple Site.
Asuka is where Japan as a state began to take shape, and Tachibana-dera sits right in the middle of it, among rice paddies and low hills in a small valley south of Nara. Tradition holds that Prince Shōtoku, the regent who promoted Buddhism and wrote Japan's first constitution in the early seventh century, was born here, and the temple claims to have been founded by him. The present buildings are much later, but the site is ancient, and the atmosphere of the quiet temple grounds, with their wooden halls, gravel courtyards and a curious stone carved with two faces, one good and one evil, is very special.
Read the complete Tachibana-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Tachibana-dera Temple Site. Next is Kasuga-Taisha and Kasugayama Primeval Fore.
Kasugayama is a forest that has been protected since the ninth century, which is why it feels different from any other woodland in the region. Hunting and logging were banned here in 841, because the hill is sacred to the Kasuga shrine, and the result is a primeval stand of cedar, cypress, oak and evergreens on the slopes just east of Nara. Deer roam through it, as they do through the park below, and in autumn their calls echo through the trees. In the shrine's grounds, thousands of stone lanterns line the paths, donated by worshippers over the centuries, and thousands of bronze lanterns hang from the eaves, lit twice a year during the lantern festivals.
Read the complete Kasuga-Taisha and Kasugayama Primeval Fore write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kasuga-Taisha and Kasugayama Primeval Fore, about halfway. Next is back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tachibana-dera Temple Site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site sits at 118 km, about halfway. Next is back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area comes up about 138 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zenizuka Kofun.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zenizuka Kofun write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zenizuka Kofun closes the day.
Zenizuka Kofun → Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Tachibana-dera Temple Site is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tachibana-dera Temple Site → Kasuga-Taisha and Kasugayama Primeval Fore is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kasuga-Taisha and Kasugayama Primeval Fore → back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tachibana-dera Temple Site → back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area → Zenizuka Kofun is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.