Blessings from Nikko Toshogu Shrine

Nikko was a place I looked forward to visiting. Unfortunately, as some of you already know from my blog, I had a rather subpar experience with Nikko. When I was in Japan again, I thought about giving Nikko a second chance however destiny seemed to have other plans for me. The day I was en route to Nikko, I ended up not transferring trains so that on a whim, I could visit and experience Sendai. Honestly, I can’t be any happier about that last minute change of plans as Sendai was such a breath of fresh air for me.

As disappointing as Nikko was, I must say that something good did come out of my trip. At Nikko’s Toshogu Shrine, I got blessed by a Shinto priest. More on this in a moment.

Out of all the religious attractions in Nikko, the Toshogu Shrine was the one I had wanted to visit most. It also happened to be the most expensive shrine I visited. If I recall correctly, my admission ticket was a whopping $20+. That’s a lot, especially when you take into consideration the throngs of people visiting the shrine simultaneously with you.

Because the shrine was severely impacted with tourists, I had no choice but to step aside every now and then, only to join the fray later. It was hectic. People were constantly in each other’s way. This made it difficult to see the details of the shrine, let alone take decent photos of the shrine.

I ended up finding places that had less people around in order to be able to take in the details of the shrine’s architecture and whatnot. Sometimes, what is seen as less important is actually just as important. Getting away from people allowed me to see the shrine from another angle. An angle that most visitors probably missed out on.

There’s an area where you climb a bunch of stairs to see Tokugawa Ieyasu’s tomb. Supposedly, this is where the remains of Japan’s famous Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu are at. I say supposedly because there’s a rumor that his remains are actually still at the first Toshugu Shrine, which is located in Shizuoka. Regardless of where Ieyasu’s remains actually are, the fact remains that Ieyasu’s grandson had Nikko Toshogu Shrine built for Ieyasu. Impressive, when you think about it. He must have been Ieyasu’s favorite grandson or something because Ieyasu does not seem like the type to be sweet to just anyone, be it a family member or not. (Look up what happened to his wife and oldest son.)

Anyway, back to his tomb. Getting to the tomb was tiring. It was nice to see the tall trees en route to the tomb but the stairs were a workout. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you!) It was exhausting and I know I wasn’t the only visitor that experienced exhaustion.

As for the main attraction of the shrine, you’re allowed inside in limited numbers. (What a relief, right?) This is an area that doesn’t allow any photography unfortunately and is manned by two priests. So, don’t even try to take a photo because one of them will notice and be vocal about it. (There’s also signs asking people to not photograph this area, but I guess it still happens anyway.)

After a relatively short wait, I go inside with strangers and I kid you not when I say I practically was about to bump into the priest that had led us inside. I was only a few centimeters away from him! Apparently, he had turned around while I was still walking forward, which created this slightly awkward scene. He didn’t think much of it and I couldn’t think much of it either because he soon started to talk in Japanese to all of us, with an exception to one API (Filipino) couple that had already gone off ahead. I had a major wtf moment because at the time, I couldn’t really comprehend Japanese. (Still can’t really comprehend it but my current ability is still better than back then.) I kind of figured he was asking if we were interested in hearing certain things about the shrine because shortly after, I heard excited exclamations from people and they all started sitting down. While I wasn’t too sure what was going on, I ended up sitting down as well. (I don’t think there was a choice for me not to since I was already in the front row and blocked by the priest and native tourists.) Soon after, he started to talk about daimyos on the ceiling. He lost me after that. Then, the unexpected. He purifies all of us. I was really confused here because I did not know when to clap and bow. I just did my best to follow along even though I didn’t have anyone in front of me that I could copy. I felt weird trying to see what the people to my right were doing just so I could do it, too. I know the priest was purifying (or exorcising) us because he was waving a wand over us and this wand contained paper zig zags.

While I was a tad bit afraid that I might slip up and do something totally off, I think it all turned out okay in the end.

It was clear to me during the priest’s explanations and purifying that not every visitor was granted this experience. I am grateful for the experience and additional insight to Japanese Shintoism. Others can argue that it’s not fair that only some people are selected for the experience. I get this especially when it seems to be meant only for Japanese natives who in general already understand Shintoism and the Japanese language. I feel that I just happened to be with the “right” group of strangers at the “right” time. It also probably helped that I might have passed as a native.

Afterwards, I continued to explore the inside of the shrine.

Next to explore was the dragon building which is the building I almost missed out on. I think I almost missed out on it because it was crowded yet at the same time, slightly hidden as it was further back. While I don’t think the average person will miss out on this building, just keep in mind that if you haven’t seen a dragon on a ceiling, you haven’t visited this specific building yet. A priest is inside and he showcases how it can sound like thunder in this building. This same priest also told me to visit Confucius statues. I didn’t know which one I was supposed to pray to so I just left after quickly looking at all of the statues.

Lastly, my visit wouldn’t be complete without a charm purchase. So, I purchased two charms. One for myself and one as a gift. I wasn’t feeling the shrine maiden that was tending to me, but I was able to shrug it off, considering the fact that I had just received blessings from a priest. What more can you really ask for, especially when you know not everyone got blessed by the priest here?

I kind of get that she may have been irked by my crap level Japanese but it’s kind of unreasonable to be irked by such a thing when this shrine sees so many visitors – foreign and native.

Anyway, I am a fan of the Tokugawa clan’s emblem. I find the simple yet detailed emblem charming. I of course opted for a charm that featured the clan’s emblem. I also photographed a carving of the emblem. I think I was the only one that cared about this engraving… Lol

I don’t know how this shrine is doing in the midst of coronavirus but for anyone that is interested in visiting Nikko Toshogu Shrine, I recommend you to get here very early or very late (an hour before closing time) to avoid crowds. Make sure you get your money’s worth by visiting every spot of the shrine. If you purchase the combination ticket which includes access to the museum, make sure you visit the museum before it closes or else that museum ticket will just go to waste.