Rinno-ji

Rinno-ji is easy to underrate because it is split in two and its name is not on the famous postcards. Sanbutsudo, the main hall, stands by the road near the Shodo Shonin statue bus stop. Taiyuin, the mausoleum of the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, is about ten minutes' walk away, up past Tosho-gu beside Futarasan Shrine. Both are worth the time, and Taiyuin may be the best building group in Nikko.

The temple traces Nikko itself to the monk Shodo, who opened the mountain in 766. Sanbutsudo, which the temple calls the largest wooden building in eastern Japan, was rebuilt by Iemitsu in 1645. Inside, three gilded statues, about 7.5 metres from pedestal to the top of the halo, stand in the dim inner hall: a thousand-armed Kannon, Amida and the horse-headed Bato Kannon, the Buddhist forms of the gods of Nikko's three sacred peaks. You stand close below them, which is the point. Until 31 March 2027 the hall also shows the temple's normally hidden Bishamonten. In front grows the Kongo-zakura, a mountain cherry the temple puts at about 500 years old.

Taiyuin dates from 1653. Iemitsu asked that his tomb not outshine his grandfather Ieyasu's, so it is mostly black and gold, smaller and darker than Tosho-gu, and better for it. You climb through a run of gates: Niomon, then Nitenmon, which the temple says is the largest gate in Nikko's World Heritage grounds, then Yashamon with four guardian demons and carved peonies. There are 315 stone lanterns, and from the lookout on the way up you see rows of them below, gifts from daimyo. The haiden has 140 dragons painted on its ceiling and lions by Kano Tan'yu. Kokamon, the last gate, in a Ming Chinese style, leads to the grave itself. Expect a lot of steps.

Rinno-ji is one of the four parts of the Shrines and Temples of Nikko, the World Heritage property inscribed in 1999; Taiyuin's main hall, connecting hall and haiden are National Treasures. Tickets: Sanbutsudo 400 yen, Taiyuin 550 yen, both together 900 yen, and with the treasure hall and its small Edo garden, Shoyoen, 1,000 yen. Tosho-gu is separate. Taiyuin draws far fewer people than Tosho-gu, so go there in the busy middle of the day.