Kevin Gontkovic - Torii

For this post, I’d like to talk about the presentation on a very important piece of Japanese architecture: the Torii. I thought the presentation was well done and it explained some aspects of the Torii that showed how much of a connection to the sacred it really had. The Torii acts as kind of a gate for people to pass through to see the divine. It usually stands in front of a shrine that houses a kami, or god. The Torii is the entrance into sacred ground and one must take proper precautions before entering. One must be purified because the world outside the shrine has become profane. There are many rituals that one must go through to purify oneself before passing through the Torii. These usually involve washing one’s hands and rinsing out one’s mouth. This is probably because those are the parts of the body that come into contact with the profane the most. These rituals are usually done using purified water. Water is very important in Japanese culture because of its purification capabilities.

As was shown in the presentation, there are many types of Torii. The Torii for the imperial shrine in Isu is very different from other Torii because that shrine holds the most important kami for the Japanese people, Amaterasu. Amaterasu is the sun goddess and one of her descendants, according to a myth, becomes the emperor of Japan; so, every emperor after him has been considered a descendant of Amaterasu. Her shrine is truly sacred ground, which is probably why even the Torii had to be redesigned to be different from others. The imperial shrine is traditionally demolished and rebuilt every twenty years so everything is renewed.

I thought the idea of having several Torii in a row was a very interesting one. This idea that with each Torii one passes under, one is going deeper and deeper into the sacred. This probably requires one to purify oneself even more so than at a shrine with only one Torii. I also thought the one Torii that was shown out in the water to be a rather beautiful sight. This particular Torii seems to take the purification idea to another level. By being in the water, the Torii seems to be purified. This may say something about the sacred that lies beyond the Torii. The kami that resides in that shrine might be even more pure than the kami in other shrines, which is why even the Torii needs to be purified. I find the Torii to be a very interesting and beautiful aspect of Japanese architecture, and I really enjoyed the presentation on it.