Futarasan Shrine

Most people meet Futarasan Shrine before they know its name. The vermilion Shinkyo bridge over the Daiya River, the first thing you see of Nikko's shrine district from the bus, belongs to it. The shrine's story is that the monk Shodo, stuck at these rapids on his way into the mountains in 766, was carried across by a guardian deity, and the bridge marks the spot. The present one was rebuilt in 1904 after a flood. Paying 300 yen lets you walk out over the water, but you come back the way you went, so treat it as a viewpoint. The free view from the road bridge beside it is nearly as good.

The shrine itself sits in the cedars west of Tosho-gu, five minutes along a stone lane. Its god is Mount Nantai, the volcano above Lake Chuzenji, and Futarasan has three sites: this main one in town, Chugushi on the lakeshore and Okumiya on the summit. The honden, the main hall, was given by the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, in 1619. The red and black haiden in front of it was rebuilt in 1645, and after the gold of Tosho-gu it looks almost plain.

The interest is mostly in and around the paid garden behind the main hall (500 yen). The bronze Bakedoro lantern, given in 1292, has more than 70 small nicks in it: the shrine says Edo-period night guards slashed at it with swords, taking its light for a ghost. Futara Reisen, a spring said to help the eyes and keep you young, feeds a rest hut that makes matcha and coffee with the water. The unpainted Shinyosha, built in 1617 as a temporary worship hall for Tosho-gu, shows what Tosho-gu looked like before its 1630s rebuild.

Futarasan is one of the four parts of the Shrines and Temples of Nikko, the World Heritage property inscribed in 1999, and 23 of its buildings, the bridge included, are Important Cultural Properties. Its main god, Onamuchi, is better known as Daikoku-sama, a god of good matches, so you will see couples at the paired cedars. It gets a fraction of Tosho-gu's crowds, which makes it a good last stop of the day.