A luxury train ride to Nikko, the resting place of the Tokugawa shogunate

The sleek and slightly sci-fi Tobu Spacia X train, with its streamlined nose and large, hexagonal windows, ambles through the Tokyo suburbs and a tangle of other railway lines before eventually picking up a little speed. Heading into Japan’s neat countryside, it slips between tree-covered hills with grids of small, orderly paddies lapping their bases. This is no bullet train, such as those used by visitors on short-term trips to ricochet between Tokyo and Kyoto. But its comfortable carriages, in parts more like a living room on wheels than a conventional train, still reach the shrine-covered mountain town of Nikko, 150km to the north, in under two hours. Japan is an increasingly popular destination for foreign visitors, but seats on the Spacia X are mostly snapped up by Japanese, and while parts of Unesco World Heritage-listed Nikko are busy, much is quiet even in holiday periods. Despite its tombs of shoguns and some of Japan’s most startlingly ornate historic architecture, Nikko has little of Kyoto’s congestion. Boarding any of the services to Nikko from Tobu Railway’s Asakusa Station, in Tokyo’s Taito district, requires the purchase of a Tobu Nikko World Heritage Area Pass, which covers the basic rail fare. But the Spacia X, which has several morning departures, is a limited express service, requiring reservation and fare supplements, and seating comes in a surprising variety of prices for a train that’s only six cars long. Ordinary carriages are more comfortable than those on most other trains, but there’s also a premium class with large reclinable seats, as well as box seats for two facing each other in partly screened-off spaces and private compartments. At one end there’s the Cockpit Lounge, with sofas and comfy armchairs, and at the other, the Cockpit Suite, a large room with movable seating arranged around equally movable tables, bookable by groups of up to seven. Each has views out through the largely glass ends of the train to the front or rear. The Tobu pass, which also covers transport around Nikko on Tobu buses and trains, may be bought at any time, including on arrival at the station, but seat reservations for all classes go on sale only a month in advance, and quickly sell out. It was Buddhist monk Shodo Shonin who began the development of Nikko in AD766. Having crossed the Daiya River, he founded three temples, including what is now Rinnoji, one of the most important Buddhist temples in Japan. In AD848, the monk Ennin, who had studied esoteric Buddhism in China for nine years, arrived from Kyoto on imperial orders to unite Nikko’s disparate places of worship into a single entity that would protect the nation’s spiritual well-being. Abbots further expanded the site and introduced elements both of traditional mountain worship and of Japan’s indigenous religion of Shinto. The area’s three mountains are seen as representing both Buddhist and Shinto deities. But it’s the interment of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who died in 1616 after defeating his enemies at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600) and finishing them off with the destruction of Osaka Castle (1615), that continues to draw the most attention to the town. He established the Tokugawa shogunate’s military control of all Japan, which closed off the country from the outside world and went on to rule mostly in peace for more than 250 years. The very grand Shinto Nikko Toshogu is one of the most famous mausoleums in Japan and now Nikko’s most-visited site. Ieyasu was the model for Lord Toranaga in James Clavell’s recently re-dramatised novel Shogun (1975), and the Tokugawa government settled in the fishing village of Edo, which would grow into Tokyo. Tobu buses from outside the Tobu Nikko Station drive up the long and narrow town’s main street and follow Shodo Shonin across the Daiya River, although today there’s a concrete bridge. This offers views of its predecessor, the elegant red-painted wooden Shinkyo Bridge of 1636, rebuilt in 1904. Paths lined with stately Japanese cedars climb to the Toshogu entrance, and then past the sacred stable for the horse that Ieyasu rode at Sekigahara. It is mostly plain and unpainted, but its beams are alive with carvings of monkeys, including the three “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” figures, just some of more than 5,000 sculptures around the shrine. Beyond this, the Yomeimon, entrance gate to the main shrine, is widely accepted as being the most ornate in Japan and alone carries more than 500 elaborately carved figures. Its slender white pillars, carved with billowing waves and assorted creatures, seem inadequate to support the layer upon layer of bracket sets carved with fierce dragon heads that seem to lunge at the viewer in their dozens, huge reliefs of real and mythical animals, and knots of humans playing games or musical instruments or acting out scenes from Buddhist stories imported from China. Parts glitter from the application of 240,000 sheets of gold leaf, beneath a vast hip-and-gable roof considerably wider than the gate’s base. From the courtyard beyond, lined with giant drums of sake offered by businesses and painted with big black flamboyant characters, a gate to the right leads beneath the carving of a sleeping black-and-white cat to a more sombre atmosphere. The gate was once opened only for visiting shoguns, and the inner shrine opened to the public only in 1965. Two-hundred-and-seven steps carved from individual blocks of stone snake uphill, past a gate cast from solid bronze in 1683, to where a large metal urn with four doors and a pagoda-like roof houses Ieyasu’s remains. Views from the stairs take in more spectacular halls and gates below. Ieyasu’s grandson Iemitsu, who became shogun himself only 20 years after Ieyasu took the title, added grandeur to the Toshogu, while respectfully giving himself more modest afterlife accommodation. But his Taiyuin Mausoleum, a short walk away past rows of large stone lanterns with mossy caps, is only slightly less spectacular. Among its gates, the Nitenmon has fewer carvings than Ieyasu’s Yomeimon, but is larger, and the Yashamon, covered in carved peonies, is nearly as spectacular. Taiyuin’s main hall is covered in gold but, instead of facing south, as rulers’ tombs should, it faces northeast, towards the Toshogu, in subservience to Ieyasu. Its interior ceiling is painted with 140 gold dragons on blue backgrounds, no two alike. The tour groups at the Toshogu have mostly been left behind here, and there are few visitors at the neighbouring Futarasan shrine, founded by Shodo Shonin, which offers hillside paths that wind through prettily flowering shrubs. Nor are there many at most of the remaining sites, such as the Buddhist Sanbutsudo, with its three vast gilded statues, viewed on the walk back down to the Shinkyo bridge. There’s plenty more to occupy those who want to stay longer, and the Nikko Pass comes in two-day and four-day versions, allowing time to visit every single hall and pagoda, plus mountain lakes and waterfalls, and hot-spring baths. The gentle walk back downhill along Nikko’s main street passes snack bars, restaurants with easily identified one-bowl dishes, and more quirky venues such as the tiny tucked-away Hatsuishi Café, a converted traditional storehouse offering an affogato with soy milk ice cream. It is possible to spend several hours in Nikko and still return for an evening’s entertainment in Tokyo, the city the Tokugawa shogunate built.

A luxury train ride to Nikko, the resting place of the Tokugawa shogunate

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Home to some of the most impressive and storied shrines in Japan, many parts of Nikko remain off the beaten path, offering a unique experience to visitors

Home to some of the most impressive and storied shrines in Japan, many parts of Nikko remain off the beaten path, offering a unique experience to visitors