The Torii Gate and Shinto Beliefs

Leah, August and Lochlyn are working diligently to learn about the rituals and beliefs of Shinto. Shinto is mostly followed by people living in Japan. Lochlyn took the initiative to learn how to write several Japanese characters. Do you know what she's written with the characters shown in this post? (If you have a guess, let me know!)

Leah drew this lovely rendition of a Torii gate. When I saw Leah's sketch, I immediately wondered about the bright red color. Was the red used intentionally? Does the color red symbolize something?

I was also curious about the way in which the wood in Leah's drawing is straight. I though the gates were often curved. Which style is more common?

Fortunately, August has been researching the Torii gates. Here is a portion of his description:

A torii is a sort of tall gate leading to a shrine, commonly a Shinto shrine. Lots of torii and shrines are painted red in various religions including Shinto. In Japan red can have many meanings like peace and prosperity, or to scare off evil spirits. Many other torii have different colors. For example some are white and some are made of unpainted wood.  

A torii can have varying sizes  from a few meters up to 100 feet tall! Torii also have interesting architecture, some are straight pieces and have no curves and some seem to not have any sort of straight beam.  

When walking through a torii most people will walk to the side because they believe that the middle is reserved for the kami (A kami is some sort of supernatural force either in a spiritual or physical way. A kami can be from a simple hot spring to a giant mountain). Another ritual when walking through a torii is that before you walk through a torii you must bow to show respect to the kami. An exception is if there are  a lot of torii in a row. Then you only have to bow once.  

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You included great details, August & Co. I am especially intrigued by the idea of a kami being either a spiritual force or a physical force. Here's a challenge for you: in your final report, please include an explanation for why the bowing ritual changes when there are many torii in a row.