Miyagebanashi: Nikko

This is the first entry in our series of Miyagebanashi 「土産話」, or travel-stories from our various visits to Japan, and to start I’ve chosen Tochigi Prefecture’s Nikkou ｢日光」, not coincidentally the same place that Tokugawa Ieyasu chose to be buried and subsequently deified, and where, later, an incredibly elaborate shrine was built to honor him, the Toushouguu 「東照宮」. He didn’t actually commission the Toushouguu shrine; his grandson Iemitsu did, after which he immediately commissioned his own, the Taiyuin-byou. These two shrines, along with two much less ostentatious Buddhist temples–the Rinnoji and Futarasan temples–make up a close-quartered quartet of Japanese religious sites, all lying within about a 600-foot distance of each other.