Nikko Yomei Gate

The Yomeimon Gate at Toshogu Shrine in Nikko — so elaborately decorated with carvings, gilding, and color that it was nicknamed "Higurashi no Mon" (Gate Where You Forget the Day Passes) — presented Koitsu with a subject both formally complex and spiritually charged. The gate's 400-plus carved figures and ornamental details represented the apex of Edo-period decorative architecture, and Koitsu renders it with care for both its visual richness and its position within the sacred forest of cryptomeria.