Nikko
Highly recommended
Developed at the foot of the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, about 140km north of the capital, the Nikko (meaning "sunlight") complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is surrounded by the thousands of cedars and pines of Nikko National Park. Bewitching, it attracted many influential priests as of the 8C and saw the advent of important temples and sanctuaries protected by the imposing Mt Nantai. In the 17C, Japan's finest shrine, Tosho-gu, was built there to house the burial place of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
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Nikko, an exceptional and sacred place
In 1999, the whole world paid tribute to the baroque splendour of the shrines and temples of Nikko that gleam among the giant cedars, when the complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These architectural masterpieces are tightly bound up with the history of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled from the 17C to the 19C.