Shizuoka · Suruga BayNo.757★★★Open in map →
Kunozan Toshogu
— Tokugawa Ieyasu's first burial shrine above Suruga Bay
The shrine built over Tokugawa Ieyasu's first grave, set into a cliff above Suruga Bay. Its main buildings are lacquered, gilded and painted National Treasures, reached either by ropeway from Nihondaira or by climbing the sea-facing stone stairway.
- FromShizuoka Station
- ~50 minBus + ropeway, about 50 min
- Get off atNihondaira Ropeway bus stop (Nihondaira route)
- From there
- Kunozan Toshogu
Where it is
16 more notes in Shizuoka · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The Nihondaira ropewaya cable-car crossing of the valley, with the shrine roofs and Suruga Bay opening up on the way over
- The romon gatethe vermilion two-storey gate at the head of the approach
- The National Treasure hallsworship hall, stone chamber and main hall under a single roof, in lacquer, gold and colour
- Ieyasu's tombthe stone pagoda over the original grave, up a flight of steps behind the halls
- The museuma Tokugawa collection that includes a Western clock sent to Ieyasu by the king of Spain
How to actually get there
- Shizuoka Station → Nihondaira Ropeway (Nihondaira bus route, about 45 minutes, 710 yen).
- Nihondaira → Kunozan (ropeway, about 5 minutes across the valley).
- Ropeway station → romon gate → the National Treasure halls → Ieyasu's tomb (on foot, uphill).
- Museum, then the ropeway back down to Nihondaira.
- Bus from Shizuoka Station, then the ropeway
- JR Shizuoka Station → (Nihondaira bus route, about 45 minutes, 710 yen) → Nihondaira Ropeway → (ropeway, about 5 minutes) → the shrine. Cars start running from the Nihondaira side at around 9:10 in the morning. The bus climbs the plateau slowly, so allow more than the map distance suggests.
- Ropeway and bus back to Shizuoka
- Take the ropeway down to Nihondaira and the same bus route back to Shizuoka Station. The last car leaves the Kunozan side at around 17:00, so plan the museum around that time rather than around the bus timetable.
About the place
Kunozan Toshogu stands on a headland in Suruga ward, Shizuoka, with the sea on one side and the plateau of Nihondaira behind it. The mountain was fortified long before it held a shrine, and the approach still reads as a defensive one: the stone stairway switchbacks up the sea face in tight zigzags, and the buildings are stacked on terraces cut into the slope. The layout puts the worship hall, the connecting stone chamber and the main hall under one roof, in the gongen-zukuri arrangement that Nikko would later use at far greater scale. Lacquer, gold leaf and paint cover almost every visible surface.
How to enjoy it
The ropeway takes about five minutes from Nihondaira and skips most of the climb, so the shrine works as a half-day trip out of Shizuoka Station. Both the halls and the ropeway stop in the late afternoon, so start with the buildings and leave the museum until the end. If the sea view matters more than the time, take the stairway instead — it opens up behind you as you climb, not on the way back down.
Background & history
Tokugawa Ieyasu died in 1616 and, following his own instruction, was buried on this mountain above the bay. His son Hidetada, the second shogun, ordered a shrine raised over the grave, and it was completed before work began on the far larger Toshogu at Nikko. The main hall, the stone chamber between and the worship hall are designated National Treasures; the gates and lesser halls around them are Important Cultural Properties. The grave is still on the site, at the top of a flight of steps behind the main buildings.
Before you go
- Cash
- As listed by the Shizuoka prefectural tourism site at the time of writing, the halls are charged separately from the museum, with a combined ticket covering both. The ropeway is a separate fare again, around 1,250 yen return for an adult. Amounts are quoted in yen at each counter, so carry cash.
- Before you go
- Admission to the halls ends in the late afternoon and the ticket desk shuts shortly before that, with the ropeway stopping around the same time. The stone stairway is fully exposed to the sea wind and is hard going in rain.
- Another way
- The other approach is the stone stairway from Kunozan-shita on the coast road: 1,159 steps, about twenty minutes of climbing, with Suruga Bay behind you the whole way. Buses reach Kunozan-shita from Shizuoka Station with a change at Higashi-Otani.
- After you get off
- From the Nihondaira Ropeway bus stop, walk through the lookout terrace and car park to the ropeway station and take the car across the valley. The shrine approach begins at the far station.