Temple complex Tōshō-gū formed around the tomb of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. According to legend, the dying Shogun ordered feudal lords to make a contribution to the building, in fact, his own monument.

The governor and warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu led the country at the turn of XVI-XVII centuries and managed to stop the bloody internecine wars waged lords, to reshape their possessions. His last decision on the construction of the temple Tōshō-gū was to become more and reminder of the power and importance of a centralized government. The construction of the church attended by the best craftsmen in Japan, every day at the construction site worked more than nine thousand people, and 17 months after construction was completed. One of the feudal lords was so poor that it was obliged to plant trees near the temple than he worked for 20 years. The ending of his work became an alley of the 300-year-old Japanese cedar. The length of the mall is 38 kilometers, the number of trees - 16 thousand. She separates the church from the town of Nikko, which is located 140 km from Tokyo.

In 1999, the Shinto shrine Tōshō-gū and other churches of the city were included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Eight buildings temple Tōshō-gū and two sacred sword belonging to the temple, are national treasures of Japan. The center of the complex - a bronze urn containing the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu, which leads to a long staircase with stone steps.

The temple complex Tōshō-gū includes 22 buildings, including stone torii - ritual gates Ёmeymon and Caramon executed in the Japanese style of the Baroque. They are richly decorated with the decor, which felt the impact of Chinese decorative arts. The decorations can be seen Chinese mythology characters - fish, dragons, phoenixes, birds and other creatures. Several buildings designed in the traditional Japanese style and feature more reserved and laconic. The total area of ​​80 thousand square. meters.

Once the ruler of Japan chose his final resting place of Nikko, today this city is one of the oldest centers of pilgrimage in the country, there are several temples and shrines.