Toshogu Shrine and Takino'o Path

Part 2 of the Nikko adventure! Read Part 1 to catch yourself up if you’ve got the memory of a goldfish or just didn’t plain read it. The nerve.

Toshogu Shrine is the most popular, for good reason. It contains the enshrined Ieyasu, first off. The next reason is the ever famous three wise monkeys. Never heard of them, you say? How about the phrase, “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil”? I thought so. That original carving is here, and is actually part of a story line of the life cycle of the monkey.

“A mother monkey is looking far into the future of her child, and a child is looking up at the mother.”

“Three monkeys tell us that children should see no evil, say no evil, and hear no evil.”

“He is about to be independent.”

“He is ambitiously looking up”

“He is frustrated in life and desperately looking down the cliff while one of his friends is cheering him up.”

“He is love sick.”

“A newly-wedded couple are going to sail through the rough waves of life together.”

“She is an expectant mother, and return to the first scene.”

This same building is actually the “Sacred Stable”, which holds two white horses (alas, none there when I was by). The monkeys are thought to be guardians of horses, hence their presence.

Across from that were the famous “Imaginary Elephants” carved by the sculptor Tanyu Kano. He made these without ever seeing one himself (just based off descriptions). Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

Below is a picture of the first bronze Torii in Japan, called the Karadou-torii. I guess at the base were lotus flowers, which is apparently strange because lotus flowers are associated with Buddhism. I forgot to look for them, so no pictures.

At the top of the stairs are two statues of lions that appear to be jumping… but they actually serve a purpose! Apparently they are used to stabilize the fence. Those crafty Japanese, combining style with function.

Next is the famous Yomeimon Gate. It has a lot to notice, such as the multitude of carvings on it which I managed to photograph for your viewing pleasure.

Dragons, probably Kirin though

Bad photo of a dragon, but it may actually be a giraffe. I know, it’s weird.

This isn’t a very good photo, but the pillar in the center of the photo is inverted (called the Mayokeno-sakabashira) – if you look at the design, it’s upside down compared to the two on the left. It was believed that “once a building is completed, its destruction begins”, so they purposely placed it upside down to act like they were permanently postponing the shrine’s completion. I think the gods saw through that one though.

Iki or dragon on top of the Karamon Gate, located after the Youmeimon Gate. This serves at the gate for a worship building called Honsha, which used to be limited to only feudal lords or higher. The picture below is a close up.

To see Ieyasu's tomb and another famous carving (Nemuri-Neko, or Sleeping Cat), you have to pay an extra fee... or, you got a combination ticket when buying entry into Toshogu Shrine. Guess who purchased the combination ticket but also paid extra because she stupidly didn’t realize that her pass was the combination one?  Oh well, I guess the Buddhist monks need it.

The sleeping cat is famous because it signifies the peace in the land… there’s a sparrow on the other side that can feel free to fly without getting eaten because the cat is sleeping. Unfortunately, I thought the sparrow was on the image with the cat… but luckily someone else online thought to take a photo of the sparrow, so I will shamelessly steal it for your benefit. 

 FUN FACT - The sculptor (Hidari Jingoro -- famous in Japan) apparently spent 8 months mastering the art of cat carvings  to make this sculpture as accurate as possible.

I then made the trek to Ieyasu’s tomb.

His remains are in that cylinder, guarded by the crane and a turtle (symbols of good fortune and longevity). The tree in the background was special and brought some sort of good fortune, but I couldn't find out what.

There’s another part of the shrine where you can hear the “crying dragon”. It’s an awesome acoustic effect, though I’m not sure why in particular since the room is fairly square. There’s a giant mural of a dragon on the ceiling, and if you clap two sticks anywhere in the room except for under its head, you hear just normal clapping. However, if you clap the sticks under its mouth, you hear a loud echoing sound, which sounds like a crying dragon. Or at least, it did to me… though the last time I heard a crying dragon was a while ago. If you skip to the 3:00 minute mark, you can get the basic idea: 

 The Five Storied Pagoda, standing in at 36m high. It’s hollow inside. That’s all you really have to know.

Exhausted and hungry, I made my way back to the hotel, but not before stopping in another little tiny restaurant owned by an older Japanese couple. The woman was super excited to help me out and gave me a thousand brochures on things to do in Nikko. They served me up a wonderful soba made of Yuba, which is the skin that forms on top when making tofu (Nikko is famous for this). The woman also wanted to take a photo of me and put it in her little photo album of foreign visitors, ha. Below is me and her (I'm assuming) husband, the chef.

The next day, after perusing the brochures the lady from last night had given me, I realized I had been unaware of an entire section called the Takino’o Path! Thus, I returned to the temples for more.

This is a three-storied pagoda, which apparently has 12 zodiac animals carved under the roof of the first story (forgot to look) and the Kannon-Do Sacred Hall, which is where Senju-Kannon (1,000-armed Goddess of Mercy) is enshrined.

Kodama-Do Sacred Hall is where, according to legend, Kobo Daishi saw two white balls come out of a pond. Believing that they were incarnations of holy spirits, he built a temple for them. Those balls pulled a number on him, eh?

Kaizan-Do Sacred Hall is where the body of Priest Shodo was cremated.

Next to that is his grave…

…along with his three disciples

Right next to it is the Kannon-Do (or San-no-miya), which is the Shrine of Safe and Easy Delivery of a Child. Another name is Kyosha-do, because Kyosha is a piece in Japanese chess that can move forward in a straight line. I’ll have to take their word for it. The connection between the two is a straight & easy path toward delivery.

Behind that was the Hotoke Iwa, which contains six stone statues of Buddha (called Rokubu-te). They were pretty cool, and it was weird to just see these statues under a cliff.

That last one kinda scares me.

The Yin and Yang Stones, symbolizing male and female. I don’t know how this ever became something important, but I’m sure there’s an awesome back story.

This is the Kitano Shrine, built in 1661 for Sugawara Michizane (enshrined as a God of Study). At first I thought it was a pig but I think it's supposed to be a bull. After some research I found multiple reasons why this is so, but I'll only list one particular to Michizane. I guess the bull pulling his remains during the funeral procession refused to go past a certain spot, and thus a shrine (Kitano Shrine -- though not this particular one pictured) was built. 

The Tegake Stone, something I wish I had known about when I was in medical school, because by touching it or scraping a piece off to place on your family altar, you can improve schoolwork or handwriting. I decided to touch it because I don’t own a family altar. Hopefully my future studies will be successful, or maybe my handwriting will remain semi-legible.

This is the Monument of Dai-Shoben Kinzei and it literally is there to tell people not to take a pee or poop on the land because it’s sacred. Obvi.

After that were the Shiraito falls. It’s famous because it appeared in the book of Kaikoku Zakki, because otherwise I’m not sure what is so awe-inspiring.

I took a photo of the stairway because it reminded me of something you’d see in Lord of the Rings. No elves today. 

This is the Undameshi-no Torii. The “undameshi” portion means “try luck”, which you do by trying to throw pebbles through the hole for a max of three attempts (if you get it, you are going to be lucky, multiplied by the number of stones go through it). I tried five times, and my natural lack of athletic ability foiled me again.

The romantic patch of bamboo called Enmusubi-no-sasa (“match-making bamboo”). If a couple can tie the paper to the bamboo using only their thumbs and little fingers, they can get married.

Someone’s getting married!

Kitsune guarding the Inari shrine, located behind the Enmusubi-no-sasa.

These trees are called Goshinboku (giant sacred trees), because deities live in the trees. Kicker is that the original trees fell down 250-300 years ago. Shameless.

This might be one of the originals.

Sake-no-izumi… or, the Fountain of Sake. Just like the Yunessun, not really a fountain of sake, but apparently worshiped by sake brewers because of the excellent sake that this water produces. I hear the coins in the water probably add to the taste...

The Kodane Stone is believed to have the power of child-birth. That’s the direct translation from my brochure, though I think it means the power to make someone pregnant. I didn’t touch that one.

This is the Gyoja-do Sacred Hall, which contains the enshrined En’no Ozunu (founder of mountain ascetics in the Nara period)… sorta like that mountain worship I was telling you about earlier. Gyoja means “ascetic” in English.

It’s guarded by little monkeys, I think!

Inside, you can see En’no Ozunu and his followers. Kinda scary.

Ku’en Jizo is the “Guardian Buddha”! He’s named after Tadaaki Abe (Ku’en is his posthumous name), who was the 3^rd shogun Iemitsu’s aid. He was apparently known for his integrity and high morals and helped keep the government (mostly) corrupt-free. This one gets water to keep hydrated. 

And I leave you with a cool sculpture of a dragon spitting out water...

...a duck in a pond...

...and a telephone booth.

There’s a quote about Nikko that states, “Never say you’ve had enough until you’ve seen Nikko”. I would definitely recommend Nikko to people, because I think it might be under-recognized when compared to places like Kyoto. I didn’t even get to see everything and I spent two days there!