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Japan

Nikkō Tōshō-gū

Ancient Japan · Japan

Field notes

civilizations: Ancient Japan
types: Sanctuary · Temple
built: 1,617 CE — 1,636 CE
occupied: 766 CE — 1,900 CE
country: Japan

The site

A complex of shrines and temples set among towering cedars in the mountains north of Tokyo, grown up around the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the shogunate that ruled Japan for 250 years. Completed in 1636, its buildings are lavished with gilded, polychrome carving — including the famous relief of the three wise monkeys and the 'Yomeimon' gate so ornate it was said one could gaze at it all day. Shrine and mountain landscape were conceived as a single sacred whole.

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