This picture was taken especially for my mum:
We then moved onto the Tōshō-gū, Japan's most lavishly decorated shrine complex and mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tōshō-gū is dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Initially built in 1617, during the Edo period, while Ieyasu's son Hidetada was shogun, it was enlarged during the time of the third shogun, Iemitsu. Ieyasu is enshrined here, and his remains are entombed here.
It is a great place - with wonderfully decorated buildings. Lots of Shinto and Buddhist decorations with some obvious chinese influence. It was only a shame that we couldn't know more about what we were looking at. Sensei did a good job at explaining what he could - so we had a sense of what we were looking at athough I think there is deep symbology to even the smaller details - that was definately lost on us. Although the overall impression was still great.
The original five-story pagoda was donated by a daimyo in 1650, but it was burned down during a fire, and was rebuilt in 1818. Each story represents an element - earth, water, fire, wind and heaven - in ascending order.
After lunch we visited a hot spar, and relaxed for a while before heading back to Iwama.
