[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":215},["ShallowReactive",2],{"site-asuka-fujiwara":3,"site-stories-asuka-fujiwara":177,"site-siblings-asuka-fujiwara":190},{"id":4,"title":5,"access":6,"alerts":10,"bestSeasons":20,"body":24,"coordinates":111,"description":97,"extension":114,"factsCheckedAt":115,"food":116,"heroImage":132,"highlights":133,"meta":140,"nameCommon":141,"nameEn":142,"nameJa":143,"navigation":144,"nearestHub":145,"officialLinks":146,"path":149,"prefectures":150,"region":152,"seo":153,"siteType":154,"sources":155,"stay":159,"stem":172,"summary":173,"unescoRef":174,"year":175,"__hash__":176},"sites\u002Fsites\u002Fasuka-fujiwara.md","Asuka Fujiwara",{"outline":7,"duration":8,"costHint":9},"Tokaido Shinkansen (Nozomi) Tokyo to Kyoto (about 2h15), transfer to the Kintetsu limited express to Kashiharajingu-mae (about 55 min), then the Kintetsu Yoshino Line two stops to Asuka Station (about 4-5 min). Rent a bicycle or use the Kame loop bus from Asuka or Kashiharajingu-mae stations to tour the sites.","About 3.5 to 4 hours","Roughly 15,000–16,000 yen one-way (shinkansen plus Kintetsu limited express)",[11,14,17],{"message":12,"validThrough":13},"The real Kitora tomb murals appear only in short application-only windows: the White Tiger through 30 August 2026 (closed 12 and 26 August), then Suzaku, Seiryū and Genbu from 19 September to 18 October 2026. Viewing is free but requires advance application via the Agency for Cultural Affairs and is capped at about 340 visitors a day; outside these windows only replicas are on display (enquiries 06-6281-3060).","2026-10-18",{"message":15,"validThrough":16},"The park's main orientation center next to Takamatsuzuka has been closed since 1 April 2026 for a rebuild lasting until around 2030, so start instead at Asuka-bito no Yakata in front of Asuka Station (8:30–17:00) or at Kitora's Shijin-no-Yakata.","2030-03-31",{"message":18,"validThrough":19},"From 19 September to 15 November 2026 the Ishibutai paid car park is reservation-only for private cars on weekends and holidays (¥2,000\u002Fday prepaid) and the free lot becomes motorcycle-and-bicycle parking only, so arrive by train, Kame Bus or rental bicycle.","2026-11-15",[21,22,23],"Spring (Mar–May) for cherry blossoms and comfortable cycling","Autumn (Oct–Nov) for foliage and clear weather","Avoid midsummer heat; sites are largely open-air",{"type":25,"value":26,"toc":96},"minimark",[27,32,36,39,43,46,51,54,58,61,65,68,72,75,79,82,86,89,93],[28,29,31],"h2",{"id":30},"why-its-inscribed","Why it's inscribed",[33,34,35],"p",{},"Asuka and Fujiwara are where Japan turned itself into a state. Between 588 and 710, on a patch of the southern Nara Basin now covered in rice paddies, a clan-based society facing a newly unified China rebuilt itself around a Chinese-style legal code with an emperor at the center. The 19 inscribed sites track each step. Palaces stopped moving with every new sovereign and settled onto one footprint. Asuka-dera, finished in 596, brought Buddhist temple-building to Japan, and raising temples gradually replaced raising giant tombs as the way power displayed itself. The tombs themselves shrank and changed shape, ending in octagonal mounds reserved for emperors alone. The endpoint was Fujiwara-kyō in 694: a gridded capital roughly five kilometers square with a walled palace at its heart, physical proof that a centralized government existed to fill it. That model flowed straight into Nara, then Kyoto.",[33,37,38],{},"Here is the part travelers should hear plainly: almost all of this survives buried. What was inscribed is archaeology — the evidence under the fields, not standing buildings. Sixty-plus years of excavation reconstructed how the Japanese state came into being, and the farmland above it, still worked daily, is the frame you walk through.",[28,40,42],{"id":41},"what-youll-actually-see","What you'll actually see",[33,44,45],{},"The official \"digest\" bicycle loop from Asuka Station covers most of this in about five hours. The order below follows it.",[47,48,50],"h3",{"id":49},"takamatsuzuka-mounded-tomb","Takamatsuzuka Mounded Tomb",[33,52,53],{},"A two-tier round mound a short ride east of Asuka Station, seven minutes on foot, rebuilt to its ancient profile after the painted burial chamber was cut out in 2006–07 to save the murals from mold. What made it famous: on 21 March 1972, surveyors found a chamber barely a meter wide, painted with sixteen figures and the four directional deities under a ceiling of gold-leaf stars. The west wall's female figures, the \"Asuka Bijin,\" became a national obsession, popular enough to carry a best-selling 1973 postage stamp. The adjacent Mural Hall (¥300 as of 2026) shows full-scale reproductions. The originals are conserved offsite.",[47,55,57],{"id":56},"kitora-mounded-tomb","Kitora Mounded Tomb",[33,59,60],{},"Smaller, older-feeling and stranger than its neighbor. Kitora's ceiling carries the oldest surviving scientific astronomical chart in East Asia, with the celestial equator and ecliptic actually plotted, and its walls keep the Suzaku firebird that Takamatsuzuka lost. Its White Tiger faces north, which no one has fully explained. The free Shijin-no-Yakata hall beside the mound displays precise replicas year-round; the real paintings emerge only in short application-only windows. Note that the Asuka–Kitora bus no longer runs: walk 12–15 minutes from Tsubosakayama Station instead.",[47,62,64],{"id":63},"ishibutai-mounded-tomb","Ishibutai Mounded Tomb",[33,66,67],{},"The one photogenic megalith. The earthen cover is long gone from this square tomb, about 50 meters per side, leaving the burial chamber standing naked in a field; the ceiling stone alone weighs roughly 77 tons. Best guess for the occupant is Soga no Umako, the minister who bankrolled Asuka-dera. Go down into the chamber (¥500 as of April 2026), then notice the sightline west to Mt. Nijō, held since antiquity to be the border between this world and the next. Edo-period travelers already came here to gawk.",[47,69,71],{"id":70},"asuka-palace-site-and-the-pond-garden","Asuka Palace Site and the pond garden",[33,73,74],{},"This is where the imaginative work happens. A mown field marks where four successive 7th-century palaces stood on the same spot, including the hall where the Soga clan's grip was broken in the Isshi Incident of 645. Beside it, the Asuka Pond Garden Site preserves two stone-edged ponds from the mid-600s, a serious candidate for the earliest ancestor of the Japanese garden. Read up first, or take a guide; unlabeled grass rewards preparation.",[47,76,78],{"id":77},"asuka-dera-temple-site","Asuka-dera Temple Site",[33,80,81],{},"Japan's first full-scale Buddhist temple, completed 596, and its first tiled roof. The present hall is small and much later, but the bronze Asuka Daibutsu inside still sits exactly where it was installed at the founding, a claim no other early Buddha in Japan can make. Admission ¥500 (2026). A few minutes away, the Asuka Water Clock Site marks the tower where, in 660, Japan began keeping official time, an idea imported along with the rest of the state apparatus.",[47,83,85],{"id":84},"fujiwara-palace-site","Fujiwara Palace Site",[33,87,88],{},"Finish in Kashihara at the great open field, about a kilometer square, where the palace of Japan's first gridded capital stood from 694 to 710. The tomb of Emperor Temmu and Empress Jitō sits precisely on the axis of the capital's Suzaku Avenue, meaning city and imperial grave were designed as one composition. To make the emptiness legible, the Fujiwara Palace Site Exhibition Room and Kashihara City's Fujiwara-kyō reference room, with its large-scale model and CG reconstruction, are both close by.",[28,90,92],{"id":91},"worth-knowing","Worth knowing",[33,94,95],{},"Recalibrate one expectation first: every mural on permanent display in Asuka is a reproduction. The genuine Kitora paintings appear only a few weeks a year by advance application, capped around 340 people a day. Second, budget generously; the digest bike loop runs five hours, and the Kame Bus is roughly hourly outside peak season, so a missed departure costs sixty minutes. Mondays close both the Asuka Historical Museum and the Man'yō Culture Museum. Lunch is the sleeper problem: about 43 eateries serve a village of under 5,000 residents, and several of them open three days a week or sell out of a daily quota, so reserve Da terra or phone café Kotodama before you are hungry. Buy the ¥120 Asuka Kingdom Passport (2026 price) at the station information center for discount coupons across eight sites. And take the village's ten visitor rules seriously — the list of things to mind while you are here, distinct from the Ten Promises that residents and businesses make in return. Asuka is the only municipality in Japan whose entire area is legally protected, the scenery is other people's working farmland, and stepping into a paddy or climbing on the ruins for a photo is precisely what the 1980 Asuka Law exists to prevent.",{"title":97,"searchDepth":98,"depth":98,"links":99},"",2,[100,101,110],{"id":30,"depth":98,"text":31},{"id":41,"depth":98,"text":42,"children":102},[103,105,106,107,108,109],{"id":49,"depth":104,"text":50},3,{"id":56,"depth":104,"text":57},{"id":63,"depth":104,"text":64},{"id":70,"depth":104,"text":71},{"id":77,"depth":104,"text":78},{"id":84,"depth":104,"text":85},{"id":91,"depth":98,"text":92},{"lat":112,"lng":113},34.4719,135.8203,"md","2026-08-04",[117,120,123,126,129],{"name":118,"note":119},"Asuka-nabe","Chicken and vegetables simmered in a milk broth, a winter dish the village traces to Asuka-period contact with the continent; served seasonally at Yumeichi Chaya beside Ishibutai.",{"name":121,"note":122},"Kodaimai gozen (ancient-rice set meal)","Heirloom purple-red rice, small plates of village vegetables and wobbly gore-dōfu made from kuzu starch and soy milk; the signature of Yumeichi Chaya (11:00–16:00, later on weekends).",{"name":124,"note":125},"Kuzu-mochi and kuzu-udon","Yoshino arrowroot made to order at Tengokudō Terrace near Yamada-dera, the Asuka outpost of a kuzu house founded in 1870; closed Mondays.",{"name":127,"note":128},"Asuka Ruby strawberries","The local cultivar, eaten as soft-serve at Asuka no Yumeichi by Ishibutai or picked yourself January 10 through May 31 (2026 season) at 17 village farms, all booked through one line (0744-54-1115).",{"name":130,"note":131},"Kakinoha-zushi","Nara's persimmon-leaf-wrapped sushi from Izasa's kiosks inside Kashiharajingū-mae Station and on platform 6 at Yamato-Yagi; the reliable backup in a village where lunch genuinely sells out.","\u002Fimages\u002Fsites\u002Fasuka-fujiwara-hero.webp",[134,135,136,137,138,139],"Ishibutai Mounded Tomb, a megalithic stone burial chamber","Takamatsuzuka and Kitora mounded tombs with National Treasure murals (each with a dedicated mural museum)","Asuka-dera Temple Site, Japan's first full-scale Buddhist temple","Fujiwara Palace Site, center of Japan's first grid-planned capital","Sakafuneishi Ritual Site and the enigmatic carved stones of Asuka","Cycling between sites through rural Asuka scenery (rental bikes at Asuka Station)",{},"Asuka-Fujiwara","Ancient Capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara","飛鳥・藤原の宮都",true,"Kashiharajingu-mae \u002F Asuka Stations (Kintetsu), via Kyoto or Osaka-Abenobashi",[147,148],"https:\u002F\u002Fwhc.unesco.org\u002Fen\u002Flist\u002F1757\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fasuka-fujiwara.jp\u002Fen\u002F","\u002Fsites\u002Fasuka-fujiwara",[151],"Nara","Kansai",{"description":97},"cultural",[147,156,148,157,158],"https:\u002F\u002Fwhc.unesco.org\u002F?cid=31&l=en&id_site=1757&mode=json","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.japan-guide.com\u002Fe\u002Fe4176.html","https:\u002F\u002Fjapan.kantei.go.jp\u002F105\u002Fstatement\u002F202607\u002F26message.html",[160,163,166,169],{"area":161,"note":162},"Kashihara (Kashiharajingū-mae \u002F Yamato-Yagi)","The only base with real hotel supply (Candeo Hotels Nara Kashihara, Grand Mercure Nara Kashihara, Kashihara Oak Hotel); Kashiharajingū-mae is two Kintetsu stops from Asuka Station. The tradeoff is a morning commute and missing the village entirely at dawn and dusk.",{"area":164,"note":165},"Imai-chō, Kashihara","A nationally protected district of lived-in Edo-period merchant houses with working sake breweries and machiya-scale guesthouses like Hajimari; rooms are few, service minimal, and post-inscription demand means booking far ahead.",{"area":167,"note":168},"Inside Asuka Village","About 23 family-run minshuku and one-group kominka rentals (En Asuka near Asuka-dera, Asuka no Oyado Kitora with the village's only outdoor bath) put you inside the landscape at first light, at the price of essentially nothing open after dark.",{"area":170,"note":171},"Oku-Asuka (Inabuchi \u002F Kayanomori)","A renovated 250-year-old farmhouse stay (Yasaka) amid the Inabuchi terraced fields makes a fine second night rather than a first, since there is effectively no public transport and no parking at the terraces.","sites\u002Fasuka-fujiwara","Japan's first grid-planned capital, the Ishibutai stone burial chamber and tombs painted with National Treasure murals. Rent a bicycle at Asuka Station.","1757",2026,"n-3mxE9EuF4uivW7OADVymVNgUKBT-Xfj5PRVkBtr0I",[178,184],{"path":179,"title":180,"topic":181,"summary":182,"heroImage":183},"\u002Fstories\u002Fasuka-fujiwara-kitora-star-map-three-windows","The Star Map That Opens a Few Weeks a Year","history","Everything on permanent display in Asuka is a replica: the painted chambers that made these tombs famous are dismantled or sealed. The real Kitora murals, including East Asia's oldest scientific star chart, surface only in short application-only viewings, about four a year and three in 2026.","\u002Fimages\u002Fstories\u002Fasuka-fujiwara-kitora-star-map-three-windows.webp",{"path":185,"title":186,"topic":187,"summary":188,"heroImage":189},"\u002Fstories\u002Fasuka-fujiwara-one-bicycle-nineteen-ruins","One Bicycle, Nineteen Ruins: How to See Japan's Newest World Heritage Site in a Single Day","itinerary","Nineteen sites, three kilometers of rice paddies, a bus that runs roughly once an hour. The workable answer in newly inscribed Asuka is an electric bicycle, the official five-hour loop, and a lunch you planned before you got hungry.","\u002Fimages\u002Fstories\u002Fasuka-fujiwara-one-bicycle-nineteen-ruins.webp",[191,195,199,200,204,207,211],{"path":192,"nameCommon":193,"region":152,"year":194},"\u002Fsites\u002Fancient-kyoto","Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji & Otsu temples and shrines)",1994,{"path":196,"nameCommon":197,"region":152,"year":198},"\u002Fsites\u002Fancient-nara","Ancient Nara (Todai-ji and Nara Park temples)",1998,{"path":149,"nameCommon":141,"region":152,"year":175},{"path":201,"nameCommon":202,"region":152,"year":203},"\u002Fsites\u002Fhimeji-castle","Himeji Castle",1993,{"path":205,"nameCommon":206,"region":152,"year":203},"\u002Fsites\u002Fhoryuji","Horyu-ji Temple",{"path":208,"nameCommon":209,"region":152,"year":210},"\u002Fsites\u002Fkii-kumano-kodo","Kumano Kodo & Koyasan (Kii Mountains)",2004,{"path":212,"nameCommon":213,"region":152,"year":214},"\u002Fsites\u002Fmozu-furuichi-kofun","Mozu-Furuichi Kofun (Osaka's Ancient Tombs)",2019,1785853966755]