Nikko

On Friday, I was lucky enough to visit Nikko, Japan. Nikko is famous for the shrines built to honor the great Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun whose reign ushered in the era of peace and development known as the Edo period of Japan's history.

If you research Ieyasu's rise to power, it reads like a bad day-time drama. He was captured as a small boy, was held for years, made oaths of loyalty and broke them, seized lands from other families, killed his wife and ordered his son's suicide (all as demonstrations of loyalty), and through much treachery and bloodshed, placed himself as the first Tokugawa Shogun. There were many over the years. The start of his reign is marked as the beginning of the Edo Period, a 250 year span of wealth, peace, population boom and development. That's pretty rare in human history. Think of all the warring and gnashing of teeth that was going on in the rest of the world from 1600-1860. The Japanese were relatively insulated and isolated by the ocean that surrounded them. (Some of the Western Japanese clans were invading Korea and China during this time, but it was pretty much one-way.)

The Tokugawa family ruled over these Edo years, and finally were overthrown at the start of the Meiji Era. (1868-1912) When Ieyasu was an old man, he asked that after his death, he be enshrined as an aspect of the Buddha- as a god. So, his dutiful grandson built the shrines of Nikko, impressive ornate and colorful buildings set in a picturesque woods now full of old growth trees and fresh air. (My apologies to Japanese historians everywhere)

Some highlights from our day were the gorgeous weather, the towering cedar forest, the amazing cold fresh air that we kept sucking in purposefully like it was candy (which it was), taking off our shoes to enter the shrines, and the amazing ornate, brightly colored wood carvings all over everything. There were animals of all kinds, people, dragons, cranes, and herons decorating every interior and exterior surface. There were more stone lanterns on the grounds than I could count and all retaining walls, all walkways and all steps were made of carved stone. I read in a New York Times article that it took 15,000 artisans to build these structures.

To read more about Nikko- there's a really good article in the Times:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E7D71338F932A2575AC0A965948260&sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=all

One of the temples we visited is called the Hall of the Medicine Buddha. There is a painting of a dragon on the ceiling in the main room which has cool acoustical properties. The monk in there explained in broken English that when he stands in a certain place the sticks he hits together make the room ZING! It is supposed to be the sound of the dragon's cry. The sound was piercing and rather stunning.

We visited Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls. Kegon Falls is 97 meters high. Taughannock Falls is 65.5 meters high. At the falls, Terry and I met a spry old man who told us he was 73 years old. He was very excited to be using his English and chatted us up with great enthusiasm. He had crazy eyes though.

Then we boarded the bus back to Tokyo. Nikko is a beautiful place. A place of the traditional Japan of our Western dreams.