page_title: Torana
section_title: Torii in Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Torana / Usage outside India / East and Southeast Asia / Torii in Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: Torii at Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, with a visiting boat. Français&#160;: Torii du sanctuaire d'Itsukushima, à Miyajima, dans la province d'Hiroshima au Japon, avec un bateau de touristes en visite.
context_page_description: Torana, also referred to as vandanamalikas, is a free-standing ornamental or arched gateway for ceremonial purposes seen in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain architecture of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. Chinese paifang gateways, Japanese torii gateways, Korean Hongsalmun gateways, and Thai Sao Ching Cha were derived from the Indian torana. The word torana means "a bird perch".
context_section_description: The torii, a gateway erected on the approach to every Shinto shrine, was derived from the Indian "torana". According to several scholars, the vast evidence shows how the torii, both etymologically and architecturally, were originally derived from the torana, a free-standing sacred ceremonial gateway which marks the entrance of a sacred enclosure, such as Hindu-Buddhist temple or shrine, or city.
caption: The famous torii at Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Japan, where the Indian Hindu goddess Saraswati is worshipped as the Buddhist-Shinto goddess Benzaiten.
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