{Inter} Cultural Japan

Torii gates are symbols of Shinto shrines and mark their sacred space from the mundane world. The basic structure consists of two pillars with a top rail and a little below that a second horizontal rail piercing both columns, providing stability to the structure.

The greatest orgy of torii gates can be seen on the mountain behind the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, where companies and individuals have donated thousands and thousands of vermilion torii gates that have been set so closely together that they form tunnels leading up to the mountain.

[Torii gates forming tunnels on he mountain behind Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto]

In the shops in the street in front of the Fushimi Shrine also minature models of those red torii gates were sold. We bought one together with two ceramic foxes (the messenger of the deity of the shrine) to decorate in our home, as we had seen them used in small shrines on the mountain as well.

[Miniature torii gates on a shrine in Fushimi Inari, Kyoto]

But on this wall of a house in central Kyoto I saw another way to use these small wooden copies of the sacred gate.

[A somewhat faded miniature torii gate affixed to the wall of a house in central Kyoto]

No, this is no decoration and it also does not signify that the persons living here are fervid parishioners of the Fushimi shrine!

The truth is more down to earth. The symbolic torii functions in the same way as the inuyarai lattice boards you see on traditional Kyoto houses, that is to say: to prevent passersby from soiling the wall, throwing away garbage and letting their dog use the spot as a toilet.

Even inebriated gentlemen seem to be so sensitive to this sacred symbol that they go and pass their water elsewhere.