Gold and lacquer in a cedar forest — Tōshōgū Shrine and Japan's most ornate mausoleum
Nikkō is where Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of Japan's last shogunate, was deified and entombed — and his successors made sure everyone knew it. The Tōshōgū Shrine complex is so lavishly decorated with gold leaf, lacquer, and carved animals that it became a byword for ostentation in Japanese ('Don't say kekko until you've seen Nikkō' — don't say magnificent until you've been here). Beyond the shrine complex, Nikkō National Park holds Kegon Falls (one of Japan's three great waterfalls), the vermilion Shinkyo Bridge, and the highland lake of Chūzenji-ko backed by the volcano Nantaisan.
Tokugawa Ieyasu died in 1616 and was enshrined at Nikkō as the deity Tōshō Daigongen — the Great Incarnation Illuminating the East. His grandson Tokugawa Iemitsu rebuilt the shrine complex on a vastly grander scale between 1634 and 1636, deploying 15,000 craftsmen and reportedly covering the Yōmeimon gate alone in 400 kg of gold leaf. The UNESCO inscription of Nikkō's shrines and temples (1999) covers the Tōshōgū, Rinnoji Temple, and Futarasan Shrine — together making the most concentrated example of Edo-period religious architecture in Japan.