nikkoshi

Iyeyasu is now written Ieyasu. This is in Nikko, Tochigi, Japan, within Tosho-gu, the temple built to house Tokugawa Ieyasu's remains. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa/Edo era in Japan, from 1600. This pagoda was built in 1648 according to the official Tosho-gu site. It is located here The composition of this photograph is deceptively simple. Reviewing Flickr, most people take a head-on shot of the pagoda. Those who take a shot from the corner tend to choose the opposite corner. Few people include the railing and almost none include the approach to the pagoda. All photographers over-expose in order to see the details under the roofs, whiting out the sky. NOW

Hi, this photo has been discussed in one of the threads in the Flickr Commons group, and we'd love to have this added to the group pool!

This gate is the entrance to the inner court of Tosho-gu. Tosho-gu was built in Nikko to enshrine the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of hte Tokugawa Shogunate. Located here. The same photo is in the collection of Nagasaki University. NPL also has a photo by Kusakabe taken from inside. NOW

Hi, this photo has been discussed in one of the threads in the Flickr Commons group, and we'd love to have this added to the group pool!

So that image was hand-tinted then?

Yes. The quality is so good that it's easy to believe it's an early, washed-out chemical/light colorization, but this was done by artists. I'm not clear on the specifics of the process (eg, individually done by brush or performed with a block-printing system). A brief introduction is in the Wikipedia article hand-colouring.

This image has been used in the indicommons.org post: Yomei Gate

Now (from @seismic_2000 's photostream):