Page 104 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Tokyo

102  BEY OND T OK Y O

Nikko: Tosho-Gu Shrine

Tokugawa Iemitsu set out to dazzle with this shrine-
mausoleum for his grandfather Ieyasu. For two years some
15,000 artisans from all over Japan worked, building, carving,
gilting, painting, and lacquering, to create this flowery, Sleeping Cat Carving
gorgeous Momoyama-style complex. Almost anything Over an entrance in the east
that can be decorated is. Although designated a corridor, this tiny, exquisite
carving of a sleeping cat is
shrine in the Meiji period, it retains many attributed to Hidari Jingoro
of its Buddhist elements, including (Jingoro the Left-handed).
its unusual pagoda, sutra library,
and Niomon gate. The famed
sugi-namiki (Japanese
cedar avenue) leading to
the shrine was planted
by a 17th-century lord,
in lieu of a more opulent
offering. The shrine is
undergoing major renovation
work, which is scheduled to be
completed in 2024, though
most of it is still open to visitors.

. Yomeimon Gate
Lavishly decorated with beasts and flowers,
this gate has one of its 12 columns carved
upside-down, a deliberate imperfection to
avoid angering jealous spirits. Statues of
imperial ministers occupy the niches.
Renovation work at the gate will continue
until 2019.

KEY
1 The Rinzo contains a sutra library 7 Honden (inner sanctuary)
of Buddhist scriptures in a revolving 8 The three sacred storehouses
structure. are built according to a traditional
2 Drum tower design. They are closed for
3 The Honji-do’s ceiling is painted renovation until 2019.
with the “crying dragon,” which 9 The Niomon (or Omotemon)
echoes resoundingly if you clap your gate is guarded by two fear some
hands beneath it. Nio figures, one with an open mouth
4 Bell tower to pronounce the first letter of the Sacred Fountain
Sanskrit alphabet (ah), the other with
5 The Karamon gate is the a closed mouth for the last letter (un). The granite basin (1618),
smallest at Tosho-gu. for ritual purification, is
0 Ticket office
6 Haiden (sanctuary) covered with an ornate
q Granite torii (gate) Chinese-style roof.

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