Kunozan Toshogu Shrine

Even long weekends are too short - it's already Sunday! But we did make the most of the time off with a couple of long runs, some relaxing, and even a day trip to the Kunozan Toshogu shrine in Shizuoka city with a colleague and her visiting dad.

Kunozan Toshogu, though less famous than the Nikko Toshogu shrine, was built in 1617 (nearly two decades before the Nikko shrine) by Tokugawa Hidetada as per Tokugawa Ieyasu's wishes, and was the first burial place of the great shogun. Ieyasu's remains were later removed and transported to Nikko Toshogu, but the remains of his revered horse are still housed at Kunozan.

Like other Toshogu shrines, Kunozan is more colourful and elaborate than typical shrines of that period and combines styles of Budhist temples with shintoism. I would have loved to show awesome photos of an impressive place, but as often happens, the day did not lend itself to great shots, and other shots were just terrible. Others were not too bad:

About to walk up the 1159 steps:


Me, our colleague and her dad reading the ema wishes hung by other visitors to the shrine:


The koma-inu guarding the gate to the shrine