Kunozan Toshogu Shrine

Kunozan Toshogu Shrine sits atop Mount Kuno overlooking Suruga Bay and was built as the first burial shrine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who died at nearby Sunpu Castle in 1616 and was interred here before his remains were later enshrined at Nikko Toshogu. Ieyasu himself chose the site, and the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, ordered construction completed within just months of his father's death, making Kunozan the prototype for the lavish gongen-zukuri shrine style that Nikko Toshogu would later expand upon. The shrine complex preserves its original early Edo-period buildings, including the honden main hall, haiden worship hall, and romon tower gate, richly decorated with gold leaf, vermilion lacquer, and carved reliefs of animals and plants attributed to artisans of the Kano school and contemporary master carpenters. In 2010, the shrine's main buildings were designated a National Treasure of Japan in recognition of their status as the earliest and most historically important example of Toshogu architecture, predating the more famous Nikko complex. Ieyasu's mausoleum, the Shinbyo, stands behind the main shrine buildings on the mountain's summit. The museum on the grounds displays armor, swords, and other items associated with Ieyasu and the early Tokugawa shoguns. Visitors typically ascend via a steep stone stairway of over one thousand steps from the Nihondaira side, or take a ropeway connecting to the Nihondaira plateau, which offers views over Suruga Bay and, on clear days, Mount Fuji. The shrine's hillside setting and largely unaltered Edo-period structures give it a more intimate, original character than many later reconstructed shrines elsewhere in Japan.