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Nikko NP, Tochigi
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Sanbutsudo’s three 7.5-meter Buddhas embody Nikko’s sacred peaks: Thousand-Armed Kannon is Nantai, Amida is Nyoho, and Horse-Headed Kannon is Taro. Together, they also form a mountain family: father, mother and child.
Each April 2, yamabushi at Rinnoji urge a chosen recipient to eat from a three-shō rice bowl. Nicknamed “Nikko-zeme” (“Nikko pressure”), the rite is said to descend from mountain ascetics sharing sacred offerings.
After 1871 rules separated Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, locals petitioned to preserve Nikko’s sacred landscape. The emperor granted ¥3,000 toward moving Sanbutsudo, which reached its present site in 1879.
In 1881, an already 400-year-old mountain cherry was transplanted to the Sanbutsudo forecourt from Rinnoji’s former grounds. Its unusual multi-trunk shape and large white blooms later earned national Natural Monument status.
At Rinnoji’s Taiyuin mausoleum, Tokugawa Iemitsu rests near his grandfather Ieyasu. Iemitsu’s will said he should not surpass his grandfather, so the buildings use restrained black and gold; 315 lanterns line the precinct.
Shoyoen began as the private garden of imperial-prince abbot Shucho in the 17th century. Its pond evokes Lake Biwa, near Kyoto, where he spent much of his childhood; its name came from a scholar’s praise for strolling there as Zen-like.
Each May 17, two Rinnoji monks perform a 15-minute dance in Sanbutsudo, wearing vermilion robes, broad white trousers and swords strapped behind them. Temple tradition says Ennin brought the secret dance from Tang China in 848.
Rinnoji’s founder, Shodo Shonin, began with a humble thatched-roof sanctuary in 766. He reached Mt. Nantai’s 2,486-meter summit in 782—on his third attempt—helping establish Nikko as a center of mountain worship.
The temple’s early name was Shihonryuji. In 1655, it became an imperial-lineage temple led by Prince Shucho and received the name Rinnoji; Shucho also served as abbot of Kaneiji in Edo, today’s Tokyo.
