Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [132]
Kawai i-in Clinic (54-1125; irregular hr) On the main road, three blocks southeast of the Kyōdo Centre tourist information office. Has an English speaker; call first for an appointment.
Kyōdo Center tourist information office (54-2496; internet per 15min ¥50; 9am-5pm) Has maps and English speakers. You can also arrange for free guided tours in English. There are several computers available for internet use.
Nikko Perfect Guide (www.nikko-jp.org/english/index.html) This website to the city also has a print version available from the Kyōdo Center tourist information office for ¥1575.
Post office On the main road, three blocks northwest of the Kyōdo Center tourist information office. Has an international ATM and currency exchange.
Tōbu Nikkō Station tourist information desk (53-4511; 8.30am-5pm)
Sights
The World Heritage Sites around Tōshō-gū are Nikkō’s centrepiece. A ¥1000 ‘combination ticket’, valid for two days and available at booths in the area, covers entry to Rinnō-ji, Tōshō-gū and Futarasan-jinja, but not the Nemuri-Neko (Sleeping Cat) in Tōshō-gū and Ieyasu’s tomb. Separate admission tickets to these sights are available.
Most sites are open from 8am to 5pm (until 4pm from November to March). To avoid the hordes, visit early on a weekday. Be sure to bring a map, as finding the English signposts to the shrines and temples can be tricky.
SHIN-KYŌ
The lovely red sacred bridge (54-0535; crossing fee ¥300; 8am-4pm Jun-Aug, 9am-5pm Dec-Feb) over the Daiya-gawa is a much-photographed reconstruction of the 17th-century original. Its location is famed as the spot where Shōdō Shōnin was carried across the river on the backs of two giant serpents.
RINNŌ-JI
This Tendai-sect temple was founded 1200 years ago by Shōdō Shōnin, and today some 360m of zelkova trees make up the pillars in the current building. The three 8m gilded images in the Sambutsu-dō (Three Buddha Hall) are the largest wooden Buddhas in Japan. The central image is Amida Nyorai (one of the primal deities in the Mahayana Buddhist cannon) flanked by Senjū (1000-armed Kannon, deity of mercy and compassion) and Batō (a horse-headed Kannon), whose special domain is the animal kingdom. A room to the side contains a healing Buddha, holding his ring finger over a medicine bowl, and said to be the origin of the Japanese name for this finger (kusuri-yubi means ‘medicine finger’).
Rinnō-ji’s Hōmotsu-den (Treasure Hall; admission ¥300) houses some 6000 treasures associated with the temple; admission is not included in the combination ticket Click here.
Next to Rinnō-ji is the 15m-high, 3m-circumference pillar Sōrintō, built by Iemitsu in 1643. Inside are 1000 volumes of sutras.
TŌSHŌ-GŪ
A huge stone torii is a fittingly grand entrance to this storied Shintō shrine. To the left is a five-storey pagoda (34.3m) dating from 1650 and reconstructed in 1818. The pagoda has no foundations but contains a long suspended pole that swings like a pendulum, maintaining equilibrium in the event of an earthquake.
The entrance to the main shrine is through the torii at Omote-mon, a gate protected on either side by Deva kings. Just inside are the Sanjinko (Three Sacred Storehouses). On the upper storey of the last storehouse are imaginative relief carvings of elephants by an artist who famously had never seen the real thing. To the left of the entrance is Shinkyūsha (Sacred Stable), a plain building housing a carved white horse. The stable is adorned with allegorical relief carvings of monkeys, including the famous ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’ monkeys, demonstrating three principles of Tendai Buddhism.
Just beyond the stable is a granite font at which, in accordance with Shintō practice, worshippers cleanse themselves by washing their hands and rinsing