SHINKYO BRIDGE
The street from the station leads to the Daiya-gawa river, about 1.5 km to the west. It crosses not far from the Shinkyō, a sacred red bridge with an arch, built in 1636. This bucolic bridge was destroyed in 1902 by a flood and rebuilt in 1907. Legend has it that the monk Shōdō Shōnin, the first Buddhist monk to establish his hermitage in Nikkō in 782, wanted to cross the river here to reach the summit of Mount Nantai. Two enormous 28-metre-long snakes are said to have served as his bridge. Today, it can be crossed in a less picturesque way for a few yen. On the other side of the bridge, at the base of the Rin Nō-ji steps, a stone monument erected in 1648 is dedicated to Matsudaira Masatsuna, the lord who took charge of the Tōshō-gū works and undertook to plant some 200,000 cedars. Only 13,000 remain today, contributing to the religious and solemn atmosphere of the park. A little further north, you can see the Hon-gū, a red lacquer construction, and also the Shihon Ryō-ji, built in 766 by the monk Shōdō. Both buildings were destroyed and then partly rebuilt at the same time as the Rin Nō-ji, a large temple built in 766 by the same monk Shōdō. In the latter, note the statue of Kannon with a thousand arms, attributed to Shōdō, next to two statues representing Godaison and Shōdō. The beautiful three-storey pagoda is said to have been built by Minamoto Sanetomo, the third shogun of the Kamakura government (circa 1200).
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