Torii Gate

In Shinto, a shrine (神社, jinja) is the home of kami, the gods and spirits of the natural world. The torii stands at the point where the ordinary ends and the holy begins. To pass through it is to enter the land of the kami. By custom, visitors bow before they pass through. They walk along the sides of the path and leave its centre, the seichū, for the god. The path beyond the gate, the sandō (参道), leads toward the shrine. On the way, you stop at a water basin to rinse your hands and mouth. A large shrine may have several torii in a row.

Most torii wear a coat of bright vermilion paint (朱色, shuiro). People believe this red keeps evil away and stands for life and the sun. The traditional pigment contains mercury, and it also protected the wood. Other torii are plain wood, stone or bronze. There are two broad families of shapes. Shinmei torii have straight beams. Myōjin torii have a top beam that curves up at the ends. A simple rule for travellers: a torii means a Shinto shrine, and a gate with a roof, a sanmon, means a Buddhist temple.

A few torii reach an extraordinary size. The great gate of Itsukushima Shrine, on an island near Hiroshima, seems to float on the sea at high tide. At Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, thousands of torii stand so close together that they form glowing tunnels up the mountain. Each gate is a gift from a person or a business, in thanks or in hope, and the donor's name appears in ink on the back. Visitors enter Meiji Jingū in Tokyo through one of the largest wooden torii in Japan. The gate of Hakone Shrine rises straight out of Lake Ashi, with Mount Fuji behind it.