As promised...

When the founder of the shrine(shogun Ieyasu in case you've lost track) died, the emperor made him a Shinto god. His shrine is the plain dark one pictured here, and you can see a shinto priest and followers paying respects. the other shrine pictured here is that of his grandson, Iemitsu. In addition to outshining his grandfather by a wide margin, he also had dozens of buildings and gates spread all over the complex, all by the best artists in Japan. The whole assemblage is covered in lacquer and gold leaf, and intricate carvings decorate almost any available surface. There's far too much to show here, but in the next post, I'll put up some closeups of some of the workmanship.

This is the relatively plain horse stable, but, this being over the top Nikko, it's still more adorned than your run of the mill stable. But, as possible use in a future Trivial Pursuit game, you'll see the three monkeys carved into the building. These are the original "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" monkeys. The saying comes from Japan, and this is the original picture of the saying. Maybe that's why it really doesn't make sense. I can see hear no evil and speak no evil as a general rule against gossiping and rumormongering, but see no evil to me means if you see a crime, look away, or maybe don't rat out your friends to the cops. Not your typical moral advice, but maybe it made sense at the time.

The entrance takes you past the requisite pagoda, and to a big open space with random buildings in it, including a revolving library with thousands of Buddhist manuscripts in it, and the stables, which I should talk about now but if I add more photos I think the page will be even more chaotic looking than usual.

In addition to the main shrine complex, there are also Buddhist and Shinto temples attached. The huge barnlike building pictured here is the Buddhist temple, Rinno-ji, at the base of the complex. Inside is another giant Buddha that I can't show you. From there, we joined the tourists up a stone staircase, and to this highly decorated gate, the first of many in the memorial complex. It's called Nio-mon, for those taking notes.

Nikko was considered a sacred site for many centuries before the great warlord Shogun Ieyasu decided to build his memorial shrine there. Ieyasu was famous for ending a particularly violent, century long civil war among rival warlords and uniting the country under his control. Although he was buried there in 1616 when he died, his grandsom, Iemetsu really went to town on the place, building the most lavish complex in Japan, and adding his own shrine there as well, which outshines grandpa. The buildings undeniably have a big wow factor, although, like the Rococo period in Europe, lots of people think it's a bit over the top. Personally I think it's a lot of fun, but I really like the setting, in the mountains surrounded by ancient, soaring cedars, is the best part.