Tokugawa Ieyasu ended a century of civil war and founded the dynasty that ruled Japan for 265 years. On his death he asked to be buried in these mountains, and his grandson turned his tomb into the most lavish shrine in the country, with more than five thousand coloured and gilded carvings. Twelve stops between the sacred bridge, the stone torii, the three monkeys, the imaginary elephants, the gate you never tire of looking at, the sleeping cat, the grandson's more modest mausoleum, the Jizo statues nobody can count, the longest cedar avenue in the world and the Kegon waterfall. Approximate audio duration: 19 minutes.
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Nikko: el mausoleo que convirtió a un shogun en dios
Tokugawa Ieyasu terminó con un siglo de guerras civiles y fundó la dinastía que gobernó Japón durante 265 años. Al morir pidió ser enterrado en estas montañas, y su nieto convirtió su tumba en el santuario más recargado del país, con más de cinco mil tallas de colores y oro. Doce paradas entre el puente sagrado, el torii de piedra, los tres monos, los elefantes imaginarios, la puerta que no se cansa de mirar, el gato dormido, el mausoleo más modesto del nieto, los Jizo que nadie logra contar, la avenida de cedros más larga del mundo y la cascada de Kegon. Duración aproximada de audio: 19 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~19 min of audio · 25.51 km on foot (~6 h 25 min walking) · about 6 h 45 min in total
Stop by the river and look at the red bridge arching across it. It is the Shinkyo, the sacred bridge. For centuries only the envoys of the emperor and the shogun could cross it. Everyone else used the ordinary bridge beside it.
Below flows the Daiya River, with icy water coming down from the mountains. Nikko lies about a hundred and forty kilometres north of Tokyo, among cedar forests and volcanoes.
Legend says that in the eighth century a Buddhist monk, Shodo Shonin, wanted to cross this river to climb the sacred mountains. There was no way. He prayed, and a god threw him two snakes, one gr…
2
Three Buddhas for Three Mountains
You are in front of the Sanbutsudo, the hall of the three Buddhas of Rinno-ji temple. It is the largest wooden building in Nikko. Inside are three gilded statues more than eight metres tall.
Each represents one of Nikko's three sacred mountains. In old Japan, the Buddhas and the local gods were considered manifestations of the same reality. The mountains were gods; the gods were Buddhas.
The temple was founded by the same monk of the bridge, Shodo Shonin, in the eighth century. But its golden age came with the Tokugawa.
Nikko's spiritual architect was Tenkai, a monk who lived over a hundred…
3
The God of the Eastern Light
You are before the great stone torii of Toshogu. It was donated in 1618 by a feudal lord from Kyushu, and the stone was brought from there, hundreds of kilometres away. On your left rises a red five-storey pagoda.
Tokugawa Ieyasu died in 1616. He had won the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, made himself shogun in 1603 and in 1615 eliminated his last rivals at Osaka. Japan had been at war for over a century. After him it had more than two hundred and fifty years of peace.
Before he died, he left instructions: a small shrine in these mountains. The following year his remains were brought here in …
4
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil
This is the sacred stable, the only building in the shrine without lacquer or colour. The white horse consecrated to the god lived here. Look up at the carved panels above the door.
There are the three most famous monkeys in the world: one covers its eyes, another its ears, another its mouth. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
In Japan monkeys were believed to protect horses from disease. That is why there are monkeys on a stable.
But notice there are not three panels, there are eight. They tell the life of a monkey from birth until it starts its own family. The three monkeys belong …
5
The Elephants No One Had Seen
Look at the pediment of the storehouse on the right, the Kamijinko. There are two carved animals in pale grey. They have trunks and tusks, but the ears, tail and legs are odd.
They are called sozo no zo: the imagined elephants. The painter who made the design, Kano Tan'yu, one of the most important artists of his time, had never seen an elephant.
He drew them from descriptions and Chinese images. The result is a creature half real, half mythological.
That is a clue about Tokugawa Japan. The country was closing itself off. From the 1630s Japanese could not travel abroad and foreigners could …
6
The Twilight Gate
Here it is: Yomeimon. White, gold, red and green, covered in more than five hundred carved figures: dragons, lions, Chinese sages, children at play, flowers, clouds.
It is also called Higurashi-mon, the twilight gate: it is said you could look at it from morning until dark without seeing all its details.
Ieyasu had asked for a modest shrine. But his grandson Iemitsu, the third shogun, ordered everything rebuilt in 1634. The works lasted about a year and a half and mobilised millions of days of labour by carpenters, sculptors, lacquerers and gilders.
It was not only devotion. It was propagan…
7
The Cat That Sleeps for Peace
Look above the small door in the corridor: a white cat curled up among peonies, eyes closed. It is the Nemuri-neko, the sleeping cat. It is small: many people walk past without seeing it.
Now go through the door and turn around. On the other side of the same beam there are carved sparrows playing peacefully.
The most common interpretation is this: if the cat sleeps, the sparrows can live in peace. It is a metaphor for the Tokugawa peace. The hunter rests; the weak have nothing to fear.
Behind the cat begins a stone staircase of more than two hundred steps among giant cedars. Climb it slowly…
8
The Gods Before the Shoguns
You are at Futarasan Jinja. It is simpler and quieter than Toshogu, and much older. It was founded by the monk Shodo Shonin at the end of the eighth century.
No shogun is worshipped here. Three mountains are: Mount Nantai, Mount Nyoho and Mount Taro. They are Nikko's divine family: father, mother and son.
The shrine owns an enormous territory, including the summit of Mount Nantai and the Kegon waterfall. For centuries pilgrims climbed Nantai on summer nights to watch the sun rise from the peak.
Notice the contrast. Toshogu is political power turned into religion. Futarasan is the religion t…
9
The Grandson Who Chose Not to Outshine
You are at Taiyuin, the mausoleum of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun. The same man who had Toshogu rebuilt with all that luxury.
Notice the colours: black and gold predominate, darker and more restrained than Toshogu's brilliant white. It is just as refined, but smaller.
Iemitsu died in 1651. He asked to be buried near his grandfather, whom he revered. But he left one condition: his mausoleum must not surpass Ieyasu's.
Iemitsu was the shogun who closed Japan. He banned Christianity, expelled the Portuguese, forbade Japanese to travel abroad and left the Dutch shut up on an island in Naga…
10
The Jizo Nobody Can Count
You are at Kanmangafuchi, beside the Daiya River, which here runs between black volcanic rocks. Along the path stands a row of about seventy moss-covered stone statues wearing red caps and bibs.
They are statues of Jizo, protector of travellers and children. They were carved in the seventeenth century by a group of disciples of a monk from the Nikko temple.
They are called Bake Jizo, the ghost Jizo. It is said that if you count them on the way there and on the way back, you never get the same number. Try it.
This place shows another side of Nikko. Far from the gold of the shoguns, religion …
11
The Poor Lord's Gift
You are on the Nikko cedar avenue. On both sides of the road, huge reddish trunks disappear upwards. Some are almost four hundred years old and more than thirty metres tall.
The avenue stretches for about thirty-five kilometres along the roads that led to Nikko. It is recorded as the longest tree-lined avenue in the world. Around twelve thousand trees still stand.
It was planted by a feudal lord, Matsudaira Masatsuna, over some twenty years from 1625. The story told is this: every lord donated stone or bronze lanterns to Ieyasu's shrine. Masatsuna could not afford one.
So he offered trees. …
12
The Waterfall at the End of the Road
From the viewing platform, look at the Kegon waterfall: a drop of almost a hundred metres, the water of Lake Chuzenji plunging in one go over a cliff of lava.
The lake formed thousands of years ago when an eruption of Mount Nantai blocked a valley. The water found a way out: this precipice.
For the monks this was sacred ground. For the foreigners of the Meiji era it was a discovery. British, French and Italian diplomats built summer houses on the shores of Lake Chuzenji. Some embassies practically moved here during the hot months.
The waterfall also has a sad story. In 1903 a sixteen-year-o…
How long does the "Nikko: the Mausoleum That Turned a Shogun Into a God" audio tour take?
It has about 19 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 25.51 km walking route (~6 h 25 min on foot). Plan roughly 6 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Bridge of Snakes" (coordinates 36.7533, 139.6036). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Nikko and pick "Nikko: the Mausoleum That Turned a Shogun Into a God". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
