Kokamon Gate

The Kokamon Gate marks the final approach to Tokugawa Iemitsu's mausoleum at Taiyuin in Nikko. Its name was bestowed by the emperor, borrowed from one of the twelve gates of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, a signal of the close bond between the shogunate and the imperial court. The architecture follows the Dragon Shrine style, inspired by China's Ming Dynasty, said to have been chosen because Iemitsu was born in the year of the dragon. Look up at the ceiling inside: a painted tennyo, a celestial female spirit, marks the entrance to sacred ground.