The Tor-ii Gate marks the entrance to a Shinto shrine. These markers will be found in many places around Japan and even on maps to mark their locations.
Once inside the walls of the shrine, you are transported to a place of peace. The Tor-ii Arch marks the place where that transformation from the mundane to the spiritual begins.
Notice how the busy city has grown around the walls. Let’s walk through the gate into the shrine to see how things are growing in their garden.
Beyond this entrance is the spiritual courtyard. It contains many buildings of a similar design.
From the centre of the courtyard, this is what the entrance gate looks like.
In the video, you may have seen a preview of the beautiful gardens. The next videos will walk you along the paths beside the ponds to see and hear the water, and walk over the bridges and around the trees and streams. If your computer is capable, expand the videos to full screen and enable higher quality. If I am walking too fast, you can slow it down too.
In this next video, you will see a couple using this destination as a backdrop for their photo session. They appeared in one of the earlier videos I have posted here.
What is the significance of this tram car being stored under a roof in a Shinto shrine? It is actually the oldest tram car that was used in the Kyoto Shiden system. The city stopped using the trams about 45 years ago and began using a subway system. Suburbs are serviced by buses. Now, like most cities, they want to reduce the use of cars in the city.
Since the tram is not running, we will have to continue walking.
Would you like a little cottage on the lake, not too far from the bridge?
Ohh, Japan looks amazing. Excellent pictures and videos of the shrine. I especially love the blossoms. Thank you for sharing.
If the blossoming trees are so spectacular in photographs, I can hardly imagine how breath-taking they must be when you see them in person.
Wow, such beautiful scenery! And they do seem like they would be a great spiritual stopping place, that could offer peace, the joy of beauty and a moment to pause and rest.
What a beautiful garden! So much to see and I can only imagine the wonderful aroma from all the flowers. What a beautiful and peaceful place to be.
Such a beautiful post with pics of a place that is both stunning and serene.. Those rotating cylinders remind me of similar ones I saw at Buddhist temples before.. But I also remember reading that Shintoism is influenced by Buddhism.. And I am so glad for a Japanese tea garden we have in our area (Hakone tea garden, in Saratoga, CA, which is less than 10 minutes drive for us).. We go there and walk every few months and it is an amazing experience each time