Clear the Nikko Local Quiz and earn the Nikko Local title. Want to know Nikko even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
The Nikko quiz maps shrines, temples and cedar avenues, Lake Chuzenji and waterfalls, Okunikko nature, yuba and crafts, not as disconnected attractions but as one local route. Names such as Nikko Toshogu, Yomeimon Gate, Three Wise Monkeys, Sleeping Cat appear alongside the ways people travel, worship, eat, and work. Begin with clues like the Nikko shrine enshrining Tokugawa Ieyasu; one of the central temples of the mountain; the highland lake at the foot of a mountain; then use examples and practice questions to move from nationwide basics to super-maniac details and test what you really remember.
Q1.the Nikko shrine enshrining Tokugawa Ieyasu. What is it called?
Nikko Toshogu
Nikko Fish and Forest Observation Garden
Bake Jizo statues
Okumiya Inner Shrine
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerNikko Toshogu
Nikko Toshogu is the shrine built for Tokugawa Ieyasu, first raised in 1617, the year after his death, and then rebuilt in 1636 under the third shogun, Iemitsu, when 55 structures, including the Yomeimon gate, went up to create the richly decorated shrine visitors see today. In 1999 it was inscribed as World Heritage together with Rinnoji and Futarasan Shrine.
Q2.If a sign read "the central temple of Nikko's sacred mountain, founded in 766," what would it be naming?
Sanbonmatsu Chaya teahouse
Rinnoji Temple
Toshogu Museum
Karamon Gate
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Correct answerRinnoji Temple
Rinnoji is a Tendai Buddhist temple tracing back to Shihonryuji, founded in 766 by the monk Shodo Shonin, who opened Nikko to worship, and for more than twelve centuries since it has remained one of the central temples anchoring Nikko's mountain faith, grouped with Toshogu and Futarasan Shrine as Nikko's "two shrines, one temple."
Q3.Spot the name that matches: the Okunikko lake created by an eruption of Mount Nantai.
Nikko Kaido
Nikko Nature Museum
Lake Chuzenji
Tobu Nikko Station
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Correct answerLake Chuzenji
Lake Chuzenji formed roughly 20,000 years ago when an eruption of Mount Nantai dammed a river, and its surface now sits at an elevation of about 1,269 meters, with a shoreline that stretches for roughly 25 kilometers around the lake. Tradition credits the monk Shodo Shonin with discovering it in 782.
Q4.Which Toshogu gate has one of its twelve pillars carved upside down on purpose, as a charm against misfortune?
Chugushi
Goh onsha
Yomeimon Gate
Mount Hangetsu
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Correct answerYomeimon Gate
Of the twelve pillars holding up the Yomeimon gate, one alone has its carved pattern deliberately set upside down. The idea is that a finished thing has already begun to decline, so builders left this one "reversed pillar" as a charm against misfortune.
Q5.Which Nikko mountain lifted its ban on women climbers only in 1872?
Mount Nantai
Mount Nyoho
Mount Shirane
Mount Taro
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerMount Nantai
Women were long forbidden from climbing Mount Nantai, a ban lifted in 1872, after which the mountain became open to any climber. Its summit holds the Okumiya of Nikko Futarasan Shrine and still draws climbers as a site of mountain asceticism.
