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About Torii
By Akio Yamazaki

The torii is the gate of a shrine that indicates the sacred precincts.

It is also called tenmon or "Heaven Gate," and shinmon or "Divine Gate"

The torii shows that from this place on is a holy space where kami descend.

When I pass through the torii, I show respect for kami and bow toward the shrine.

It is said that it is desirable that I look back and bow when I leave the torii, too..

By the way, there are several theories about the origin of the word torii.

According to one theory is a story about when the kami Amaterasu hid in the cave

Ama no Iwadao. At that time, the 80 million kami wished for Amaterasu to appear from

the cave. They made a “long-crowing chicken” sit on a bar, and crow. That bar is said

to be the origin of the torii.

　There are 1 or multiple torii in the Shinto shrine. When there are a plural number,

they are counted from the outside as first torii ... second torii, and so on. At Inari shrine,

a large number of torii are displayed like a corridor. In that case, they are counted as ikki, niki,

and so on.
　

My Shinto: Personal Thoughts on Shinto and Japanese Culture
supervised by Norman Havens nhavens@gol.com
Updated: February 1, 2008

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URL: http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/~n-havens/my_shinto/htmlfile/ayamazaki.html