Kunozan Toshogu Shrine & Mt. Fuji Views

Gaze upon sacred Mount Fuji from several perspectives that include a hilltop shrine and a coastal pine grove so stunningly scenic that artists have captured its beauty for centuries.

Stop at the Nihondaira Park Outlook, which offers a glorious view of Suruga Bay and majestic Mount Fuji. Kunozan Toshogu Shrine perches above the outlook, which you will reach via cable car.

Dedicated to the feudal lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan in the early 1600s, the shrine is a complex of ornate bright-red buildings constructed in the Shinto style. Ieyasu’s son Hidetada, the second shogun of the Tokugawa government, built the temple to honor his father. The three main halls within the complex are elaborately decorated, but vary architecturally. The carved ceiling in Honden Hall is particularly interesting. For a bit of entertainment, you might select a random paper fortune from a box and then tie it to a string in hopes that the fortune will come true. This common practice at Japanese shrines is known as omikuji.

For a different perspective of Mount Fuji, you’ll drive to the seaside pine grove Miho no Matsubara. The grove consists of more than 50,000 pine trees, including a 650-year-old tree thought to have mythical powers. The view from the shore with Mount Fuji lording over the scenery has been rated one of the top three views in Japan.