Today involves a one day trip to Nikko, just over 2 hours north of Tokyo via train in another prefecture. Nikko is the home to Taiyuan, a UNESCO World Heritage site that includes many shrines and temples. Prefectures are similar to our Canadian provinces in that they are one level below the national government, are headed by a premier equivalent called a governor and manage infrastructure, education and other services. We differ because our provinces have constitutional powers including taxation and the 47 prefectures largely execute laws and guidelines set by the national government.
After a big breakfast, our guide Shinobu meets us at the hotel lobby. We sit and talk in the hotel lobby about the history of rulers and religion in Japan — it seems that the two cannot be separated. He had some visuals showing the periods of Emperor, Shogun and Constitutional rule. Before 1192, Emperors held varying degrees of direct authority. Between 1192 and 1867, real power belonged to the Shoguns while emperors served a ceremonial and religious role. In 1868 Emperor Meiji regained supreme sovereign and political power and constitutionally evolved governance into parliamentary cabinets. By the 20th century, the emperor became a symbolic head of state with no political power.
We head over to the Asakusa Subway Station to get to the train departure station at Tobu Asakusa to catch the Tobu Railway Limited Express. The train (Spacia X) has been recently upgraded and we find our assigned car and seats and settle in for the ride. The scenery out the window shows just how enormous Tokyo is. Urban sprawl seems to go on for about 75% of that 2 hour trip. We eventually pass farms and smaller communities and we exit at the Toby-Nikko station.
On our way. Before long, Judith decides she’d rather talk to our guide Shinobu, so I trade seats with him. That’s fine, I think I had my eyes closed for a lot of the journey.
The Shrines and Temples of Nikko received their designation as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1999. Taiyuan is the mausoleum of Tokugawa lemitsu, grandson of Tokugawa leyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The grandfather, leyasu, was buried in Shizuoka City, about 180 km from Tokyo and a shrine (Toshogu) was built in his honour here in Nikko. His grandson lemitsu wanted to honour his grandfather and renovated his existing Toshogu shrine, to be much larger and magnificent. There are many Shinto and Buddhist buildings located in a beautiful forest setting.
Official entry sign. The emblem is the Tokugawa Crest and is the emblem of the Shogun Tokugawa dynasty that ruled during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
We tour Taiyuan Shrine, the mausoleum site of the 3rd Shogun Tokugawa lemitsu first. It’s more modest than Toshogu Shrine, the one he built to honour his grandfather, but it still ranks a very close second. It still has 22 buildings that are registered national treasures. Here are some of them
Nitenmon Gate is the largest gate at Taiyuan. It translates to the “Gate of the Two Heavenly Kings”. The architecture Buddhist influenced.
The tablet at the top of the gate features calligraphy written by the 108th Emperor of Japan, Go-Mizunoo.
At the sides of all the entry gates are large fierce looking guardian deities at the front and two more on the backside. At this gate the front figures are muscular guardian warriors that are 3.2 metres tall. One of the figures has an open mouth representing birth and the beginning of all things. The other has a closed mouth representing death and the end of all things. Together they symbolize the rhythm of the universe.
Prayer hall complex. We could not take pictures of the main hall interior which features black lacquer, gold leaf and 140 ceiling paintings of dragons. The entire prayer hall can only be viewed from the outside corridor of the hall itself.
The complex contains the outer Prayer Hall (Haiden), an intermediate connecting corridor (Ai-no-ma) and the inner Main Hall (Honden) also called the Golden Pavillion (Kinkakuden) into a single unified structure.
Kokamon Gate. The name of the gate was given by the Emperor at the time it was built in about 1653. It is the name of one of the main gates at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto and demonstrates the close ties between the Imperial House and the Tokugawa shogunate.
This is a ryugu or dragon style shrine drawing on the architecture of China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and would have been considered exotic to the Japanese people of the time.
Not sure what this building was. I just thought the angle was particularly interesting. It looks like it was a gate house but it is empty where the benevolent kings should be at the sides of the entryway.
After this section, we went to the newly built museum building for lunch and recharge before tackling the mausoleum Toshogu Shrine complex. Judith orders a couple of pastries which turn out to be just OK and I order pizza toast, an open faced pizza sandwich which is pretty common in Japan. It was pretty yummy.
The Toshogu complex is located in a large forest setting, has several very magnificent structures dating back to 1617. Some of the important ones are shown below.
Yomeimon Gate. This is the entrance to Toshugu shrine complex honouring the first Shogun of the Edo (Tokyo) shogunate, Tokugawa leyasu. The shrine houses leyasu’s spirit which was ceremonially transferred here after it’s completion.
The Gate is decorated with gold leaf and is decorated over 500 elaborate carvings. It is known as the “all day gate” because it’s impossible to get tired of looking at it. The gate is 7 metres wide, 4 metres deep and 11 metres tall.
Close up of one of the more than 500 exquisite carvings.
Five Storied Pagoda (Gojunoto). This was built in 1818 and replaces the one built in 1650. The central post of the pagoda is suspended from the fourth floor and stops above the foundation stone in the middle of the foundation. The post is not connected by any other means to the building itself and acts as a counter balance during earthquakes.
Sacred Stable. This is a section from the stable that housed the horse that Lord Tokugawa leyasu rode during the Balle of Sekigahara in 1600 that started Japan under Tokugawa rule. This building is famous for its panels of monkeys that teach how to lead an ideal life.
This is one of the 8 panels and shows how to avoid trouble in life: “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.” Now you know the origin of this phrase.
Karamon. One of two Chinese style gables gates. Only people of the very highest rank were permitted to pass through this gate and only on special occasions. The gate is protected by sacred animals including dragons and lions. Each of the carved sections are carved from a single piece of wood.
This is the main shrine complex which consists of a worship hall (haiden), main hall (honden) and the another room called the Stone Chamber. We walked though these buildings (sans shoes) and were not permitted to take pictures inside these buildings. The main hall houses the spirit of Lord Tokugawa ieyasu.
Famous artists were brought to Nikki from all over Japan to decorate the opulent main shrine. There is a huge dragon painted on the ceilings of the worship and main halls.
This is the end of the tour and we head back to Tokyo. Shinobu takes us back to the closest subway stop to our hotel, Shimbashi and we walk the rest of the way, stopping at the local convenience store for food that we can eat back at the hotel room.
We have no plans for the evening, but even though we’re tired from being out all day, I convince Judith that we need to go check out Shibuya Scramble Crossing before we leave Tokyo. We get back on the subway and take the 25 minute ride to Shibuya. It’s packed with people shopping, walking about, eating at restaurants (it’s considered rude to walk and eat at the same time) and just overall having a good time. I even get to point out a chain of Mario Carts driving through the traffic, but unfortunately none of them were wearing any Mario outfits. We walk through the scramble crossing a few times and even take a selfie in the middle of it.
Selfie in the middle of Shibuya Scramble Crossing. The whole intersection shuts down for pedestrians and hundreds of people traverse in all directions to their destination of choice.
We get back to our hotel and organize ourselves to get to our next destination in Kawaguchiko.
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