The is a

Shintō shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The ''honden''Also called (本殿, meanin ...

in Suruga-ku in the city of

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is the original burial place of the first ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

'' of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

, and is thus the oldest of the

Tōshō-gū is any Shinto shrine in which Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) is enshrined. Ieyasu was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), which is the third and last of the shogunal governments in Japanese history. He was deified with the name , t ...

shrines in the country. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on April 17, although its spring festival on February 17–18 is a larger event.

History

Mount Kunō (216 meters) is a steep peak on

Suruga Bay Suruga Bay (駿河湾, ''Suruga-wan'') is a bay on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is situated north of a straight line from Omaezaki Point to Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula and surrounded by Honshū ...

, and the site of an ancient Buddhist temple called dating to at least the early

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

. The temple prospered during the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

under the famous prelate

Enni Enni Ben'en (圓爾辯圓, pinyin: ''Yuán'ěr Biànyuán''; 1 November 1202 – 10 November 1280), also known as Shōichi Kokushi, was a Japanese Buddhist monk. He started his Buddhist training as a Tendai monk. While he was studying with Eisa ...

, who introduced the cultivation of

green tea Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since the ...

to the region. After the conquest of

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...

by the warlord

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

, the temple was relocated to what is now Shimizu-ku, and the mountain top fortified into a mountain castle (. After the fall of the

Takeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

, Suruga Province came under the control of the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...

. After Tokugawa Ieyasu retired to

Sunpu Castle was a Japanese castle in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The sobriquet of this feudal fortress was the "Castle of the Floating Isle".Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)Shizuoka It was also referred to as or . Hist ...

, he continued to maintain the fortifications on Mount Kunō. After his death,

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

ordered that he be buried on its peak, and had the first shrine buildings erected. The 3rd ''shōgun'', Tokugawa Iemitsu, relocated Ieyasu's grave to the

Nikkō Tōshō-gū is a Tōshō-gū Shinto shrine located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Together with Futarasan Shrine and Rinnō-ji, it forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site, with 42 structures of the shrine included in the n ...

, but a portion of his deified spirit was held to still reside on Mount Kunō. The shrine was kept in good repair by the

Sunpu jōdai were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate with responsibility for holding and defending Sunpu Castle (Sunpu''-jō''), also called Shizuoka Castle. Appointments to the prominent office of castle warden at Sunpu Domain were exclusively ''fudai daim ...

until the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. With the overthrow of the Tokugawa by the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

, and the subsequent separation of Buddhism and Shintō, the Kunōzan Tōshō-gū suffered the loss of a number of its structures and much of its revenue. At the present, most of the surviving buildings of the Kunōzan Tōshō-gū are protected by the national government as Important Cultural Properties and the whole mountain is protected as a National

Historic Site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

Enshrined ''kami''

The primary ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' of Kunōzan Tōshō-gū is the , the deified spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Secondary ''kami'', enshrined after the start of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, are the spirits of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

and

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

. A subsidiary

Hie Shrine Hie may refer to: * Hie (pronoun), an Old English pronoun * Hie Shrine, a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Japan * Hie Station, in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan * Health information exchange * Highlands and Islands Enterprise * Holiday Inn Expres ...

dedicated to Ōyamakui-no-kami was established during the Meiji period.

Cultural properties

The ''

Honden In Shinto shrine architecture, the , also called , or sometimes as in Ise Shrine's case, is the most sacred building at a Shinto shrine, intended purely for the use of the enshrined ''kami'', usually symbolized by a mirror or sometimes by a sta ...

'' and '' Heiden'' of the shrine were constructed in 1617 in the flamboyant Azuchi-Momoyama style, similar to that of the

. The buildings make use of black lacquer with elaborate carvings, painted in polychromatic colors, and gold leaf. The buildings were collectively designated an

Important Cultural Property of Japan An The term is often shortened into just is an item officially classified as Tangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and judged to be o ...

in 1908, and this status was raised to that of

National Treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science ...

in 2010. In addition, another 13 structures of the Kunō-zan Tōshō-gū as National Important Cultural Properties (ICP)s. In addition to these buildings, the Kunōzan Tōshō-gū also has a number of art treasures, many of which are on display at its museum. These include a number of ''

tachi A is a type of traditionally made Japanese sword (''nihonto'') worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. ''Tachi'' and ''katana'' generally differ in length, degree of curvature, and how they were worn when sheathed, the latter depending on t ...

'' (

Japanese sword A is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794 – 1185) to the ...

s), one of which is a

National Treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the fundame ...

, and 12 of which (including two ''

wakizashi The is one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (''nihontō'') worn by the samurai in feudal Japan. History and use The production of swords in Japan is divided into specific time periods:

'') are Important Cultural Properties. Additional Important Cultural Properties include two suits of armor, pair of eyeglasses and a clock owned by Tokugawa Ieyasu, along with 73 documents in his own handwriting. Of especial note is a clock presented to Ieyasu by

Sebastián Vizcaíno Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Asia. Early career Vizcaíno was born in 154 ...

on behalf of

Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...

in 1611.

Gallery

Shizuoka Schrein Kunozan tosho-gu 06.jpg,

Rōmon The is one of two types of two-storied gate used in Japan (the other one being the ''nijūmon'', see photo in the gallery below). Even though it was originally developed by Buddhist architecture, it is now used at both Buddhist temples and Shin ...

Kunosan Toshogu9l.jpg, Drum Tower Kunosan Toshogu8.jpg, Museum Kunosan Toshogu12.jpg, Kagura stage Shizuoka Schrein Kunozan tosho-gu 12.jpg, East Gate 久能山東照宮7 - panoramio.jpg, Hie Jinja subsidiary shrine Kunosan Toshogu11c.jpg, Grave of Ieyasu

References

* Plutschow, Herbe. ''Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan''. RoutledgeCurzon (1996) * Sadler, A. L. ''The Maker of Modern Japan, The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu''. Tuttle (1989)

External links

Official site of the shrine

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunozan Tosho-gu Religious buildings and structures completed in 1617 Shinto shrines in Shizuoka Prefecture Buildings and structures in Shizuoka (city) 1617 establishments in Japan Tōshō-gū Historic Sites of Japan National Treasures of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan Beppyo shrines