Foreign Friday

By -
Torii gate to rural Shinto shrine
Southern Japan
Nancy Stearns and Judy Loxtercamp
April 1980
No matter the size of the shrine or its location, the pathway always has at least one torii gate. Usually the gates are painted bright red, but some are rustic like the one pictured above.


The torii gates symbolize the transition from everyday life into a sacred place: if a shrine has multiple torii, the gates increase the level of holiness for the believer approaching the inner sanctuary.

A floating torii can be seen in this previous Foreign Friday post.

Comments

  1. Tracy BatchelderApril 13, 2012 at 5:56 AM

    I thought it was interesting that the literal translation is bird perch.

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  2. Changes in the windApril 13, 2012 at 7:40 AM

    I have seen pictures of these but did not know their meaning...

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  3. SissySeesApril 13, 2012 at 8:03 AM

    Fascinating, and so beautiful. I take it the second photo was somewhere VERY holy?

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  4. SissySeesApril 13, 2012 at 9:22 AM

    PS - I shared an award with you on my blog.

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  5. fancystitchingApril 13, 2012 at 10:30 AM

    Interesting! I love the depth of the second picture.

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  6. kathy bApril 13, 2012 at 5:56 PM

    I never knew the meaning of these...
    I always learn so much from you !!!! thanks

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  7. BevApril 15, 2012 at 8:28 AM

    So interesting... what we learn with your Foreign Fridays!

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  8. ChrisApril 16, 2012 at 10:23 AM

    I didn't know that about the gates. It looks lovely though. One of these days I need to go to Japan.

    ReplyDelete

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