Hiroshima Toshogu Shrine

This guide to Hiroshima Toshogu Shrine follows a hillside sanctuary founded in 1648 by Asano Mitsuakira, lord of Hiroshima, to honor his grandfather Tokugawa Ieyasu, the warlord who founded the shogunate. It traces how a shrine built on such weighty family business became, every January, the site of a much homelier ritual: locals burning last year's charms in a bonfire, then roasting mochi and passing cups of warm sake over the same flames. Stand at the vermilion gate below the steps up Mount Futaba and you're looking at timber that has stood since the shrine's founding.