Nikko (日光)

Nikko is a town in northwestern Tochigi Prefecture in the Kanto region of Honshu, situated in the foothills of the volcanic mountains of the Nikko massif, approximately 140 kilometers north of Tokyo. The area has been a sacred mountain district since the eighth century, when the Buddhist priest Shodo Shonin established the principal mountain temples and made the first recorded ascent of Mount Nantai in 782, but its present importance derives principally from its selection as the burial site of the first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, after his death in 1616. The Toshogu shrine complex, established in 1617 and dramatically expanded by the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, in 1636 in the great Kan'ei reconstruction, is one of the most architecturally elaborate religious monuments in Japan, with its main buildings covered in polychrome lacquer carvings, gold leaf, and ornamental metalwork in a deliberately maximalist mode distinguished from the more austere Edo Shinto and Buddhist architectural conventions. The complex includes the Yomei-mon gate, the principal main hall (honden) and worship hall (haiden), the Karamon Chinese-style gate, the bronze and stone lanterns donated by subsidiary daimyo, the Sleeping Cat carving attributed to Hidari Jingoro, and the Three Wise Monkeys panel of the sacred horse stable depicting the famous see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil monkeys. Adjacent shrine and temple complexes include Futarasan-jinja (founded 782 by Shodo Shonin), Rinno-ji (the head temple of the Tendai school in the region), and the burial complex of the third shogun at Taiyu-in completed in 1653. The town is also celebrated for its waterfalls, including the Kegon Falls and the surrounding mountain landscape extending toward Lake Chuzenji, which is treated under its own entry. The Shrines and Temples of Nikko were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. For Japanese printmaking Nikko appears as one of the canonical Japanese meisho. Utagawa Hiroshige treated Nikko in his Famous Views of the Sixty-Odd Provinces and in individual sheets of the shrine and the surrounding landscape, and Hokusai included Nikko in passages of his minor printed sets. The shin-hanga revival brought a sustained engagement with the shrine complex and the surrounding mountain district. Kawase Hasui produced numerous Nikko compositions including snow and twilight views of the Yomei-mon gate, the Shinkyo sacred bridge (the curved red lacquered bridge across the Daiya River at the entrance to the shrine district, founded in legend by Jakko in the eighth century), and the surrounding shrine precincts, with his Nikko sheets across multiple decades among the most reproduced of his Kanto regional subjects. Yoshida Hiroshi treated Nikko in his individual landscape sheets including memorable snow scenes of the shrine architecture and variant impressions of the temples under different conditions. Tsuchiya Koitsu, Asano Takeji, Tokuriki Tomikichiro, and the postwar sosaku-hanga circle contributed further compositions. The visual character of Nikko in prints is built on the dense polychrome ornamentation of the Toshogu architecture set against the surrounding dark green cryptomeria (sugi) forest, the curved red Shinkyo bridge across the Daiya River at the entrance to the shrine district, the seasonal phenomena of snow on the eaves and gates in winter, autumn maple in October and November, and spring fresh foliage, and frequently the foreground stone lanterns or pilgrims approaching the gates. The contrast between the elaborate polychrome of the architecture and the dark surrounding cedars produces the principal compositional tension in most Nikko prints. Contemporary visitors reach Nikko via the JR Nikko Line and the Tobu Nikko Line from Tokyo (approximately two hours via the Tobu Limited Express SPACIA), with the shrine and temple complex preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the surrounding mountain district extending north to Lake Chuzenji and beyond, accessible via the dramatic Iroha-zaka switchback road.

Hanga catalogues 33 prints depicting Nikko (日光), by 12 different artists.

Bertha Lum, Gihachiro Okuyama, and Hiroshi Yoshida are among the 12 artists who depicted Nikko in our collection.