Kunozan Toshogu

Kunozan Toshogu is a shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu on top of Mount Kuno in Suruga Ward, Shizuoka City. The 216-meter mountain faces Suruga Bay, with views east to the Izu Peninsula and west as far as Cape Omaezaki. According to the shrine's history, the mountain was a sacred site of Kunoji, a temple said in the Kunoji Engi (the temple's founding chronicle) to have been founded around the 7th century, and in 1568 Takeda Shingen moved the temple elsewhere and built a castle here. Ieyasu died at Sunpu Castle on April 17, 1616, and was buried on Mount Kuno according to his last wishes; the castle was abolished and the Toshosha shrine (later Toshogu) was founded.

The National Treasure shrine buildings are in the gongen-zukuri style, with the Honden (main sanctuary), the Ishi-no-ma and the Haiden (worship hall) joined in a straight line. According to the shrine, on the orders of the second shogun Hidetada, Tokugawa Yorinobu, later the founder of the Kii Tokugawa family, served as chief commissioner, and Nakai Masakiyo, the shogunate's master carpenter, carried out the construction. Work began in May 1616 and was completed in December 1617, a short period of one year and seven months, 19 years before Nikko Toshogu. As the oldest Toshogu building, which became the model for the Toshogu shrines built across Japan, it was designated a National Treasure in 2010.

The Honden is three bays square with a hip-and-gable roof covered in copper tiles, and chigi and katsuogi finials on the ridge; its front bay is the outer sanctuary, and the inner sanctuary behind it sits one step higher. The Ishi-no-ma, a tatami-floored building with a low floor, links the Honden and the Haiden. The Haiden is five bays wide with a hip-and-gable roof, a chidori-hafu gable and a three-bay porch on the front. The posts and eaves are finished in black lacquer and the verandas in red lacquer, and the frog-leg struts (kaerumata) are filled with openwork carvings of flowers and birds. The Haiden porch has a carving of Sima Guang breaking the water jar, and the fence around the buildings holds 106 openwork carved panels, 45 of which show small birds.

From the stone torii at the foot of the mountain, the main approach climbs 1,159 steps with 17 turns to the shrine. The Romon Gate bears a plaque reading "Tosho Daigongen" in the hand of Emperor Gomizunoo, and is also called the Chokugaku Gomon (Gate of the Imperial Plaque). A five-story pagoda about 30 meters high, completed in 1636 on the orders of the third shogun Iemitsu, once stood in the precinct, but it was removed in the separation of Shinto and Buddhism in the Meiji period, and only its foundation stones remain. About 40 steps up from the Byomon Gate behind the Honden is the tomb where Ieyasu was buried; the 5.5-meter stone pagoda that Iemitsu built to replace the original in 1640 faces west, as Ieyasu wished.

To reach the shrine, either climb the stone steps from the foot of the mountain or ride the ropeway across from Nihondaira. Visitors normally pray in front of the Haiden; entering it is limited to prayer ceremonies and weddings. The attached Kunozan Toshogu Museum holds more than 2,000 treasures, including Ieyasu's personal belongings such as the Western clock given to him by the King of Spain, as well as armor and weapons of successive shoguns. The Kuno plum grove near the start of the main approach has about 130 plum trees, so in early spring you can enjoy blossoms partway up the steps. If you want to see both the shrine and the museum, allow plenty of time for your visit.