Gates

[Dover]

Points of transition, passageways, entrances to sacred space.....

Christo & Jean Claude's Gates in Central Park, NYC (Feb. 2005).










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Fashimi Inari Shrine Gates, Kyoto Japan.





There are 30,000 or so Inari shrines around Japan; this is the head shrine. They are dedicated to the gods of rice and sake and associated in general with PROSPERITY and success in business. Foxes, who are connected with the HARVEST, are much in evidence.
At the entrace to the main shrine, there are huge red torii gates, flanked by large fox statues in red bibs. As you go up the mountain, the gates, the foxes, and the shrines get smaller and more numerous, until towards the top of the mountain there’s a maze of tiny shrines all built on top of each other, each attended by tiny foxes.
Aside from the foxes, the shrine is notable for the red torii gates. All shrines have toriis and many of them are painted red, but this goes way beyond. The various paths up the mountain, pass under a near-solid tunnel of over 10,000 red gates, all of them inscribed with the names of sponsors.