(1) page top * Start of a Journey – A Guide to Travel in Japan

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Nikko Kaido – Ancient Highway Lined with Giant Cedar Trees Tochigi Prefecture Photographed on August 31st, 2003 The “Nikko Kaido” is an ancient highway that starts from Utsunomiya City in Tochigi Prefecture. Here and there along the road stand rows of giant cedar trees (registered as a National Special Historical Site and Special Natural Monument) – sometimes on both sides of the road, sometimes parallel to the side path. Massive cedars are also found at the Ise Shrine and Eiheiji Temple, but not in such numbers. And everywhere inside the Nikko shrine and temple complex, giant cedar trees almost block the light from the sky. Today – perhaps due to cloudy weather – the cedar-lined road has a gloomy look. Not many people know the story behind the planting of these trees. But an inscription on a commemorative monument says that they were donated to the Toshogu Shrine by a man named Masatsuna Matsudaira and his son Masanobu. Together, they spent 30 years planting more than 300,000 cedars along a total of 37 kilometers leading to the Sannai area and the Toshogu Shrine – along the ancient highways of the Nikko Kaido, the Onari Kaido, the Reiheishi Kaido, and the Aizu-Nishi Kaido. One of these trees, known as the “Taro Cedar”, stands near the monument that commemorates Nikko’s registration as a World Heritage Site. A local man explained that Taro is about 550 years old, and that some of the other trees are more than 350 years old. Along the cedar-lined highway, there is a park where reconstructed rustic houses are preserved. One is a farmhouse built in the “Hotoku” style (designed to suit the agricultural lifestyle) by Sontoku Ninomiya, the other a rustic house from the Edo period in the “Kyue-zureke” (old Edo longhouse) style, with moss growing on its thatched roof. In the Hotoku Ninomiya Shrine in Imaichi City, there is a statue of Kinjiro (Sontoku) Ninomiya reading a book with firewood on his back. But Sontoku’s spirit is not only found in Imaichi. The tranquility of the ancient cedar-lined highway… The sound of flowing water... The vivid green of the cedar leaves.