Toshugu Shrine

The Toshugu Shrine is one of the most elaborately decorated in Japan, a land that prizes simplicity. Toshugu's twelve buildings encompass the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the samurai warrior who founded the dynasty that ruled Japan for nearly four centuries. His grandson, the reigning shogun, ordered the unusual shrine to be built. Carvings shown here include an elephant sculpted by a man who had never seen an actual elephant, but only had it described to him.

Toshugu Shrine

This is the Toshugu Shrine, probably the most elaborately decorated building in Japan, a land that prizes simplicity. Its twelve buildings encompass the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the samurai warrior who established a dynasty that ruled Japan for nearly four centuries, until 1868. Among the carvings are two of an elephant (the brass one and the gray one) that were created by a man who had never seen an elephant, but only had it described to him. You can also see a sleeping cat and the famous three monkeys ("hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.")