Rebuilt in 1875: A Gate That Stands on Its Own Weight
The Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii is a wooden ryobu-style gate standing in the sea in front of the shrine at Miyajima-cho, Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, rebuilt in 1875 and designated an Important Cultural Property on 5 April 1899.
Counting is not straightforward. Itsukushima Shrine long described the present gate as the eighth, taking as the first the torii raised with the support of Taira no Kiyomori. A review of the written records, reported by the shrine in 2023, added the gate put up after the buildings burned in the Kamakura period, which makes the present one the ninth.
The form is worth reading slowly. Two main pillars of natural camphor stand east and west. In front of and behind each, two cedar posts are set, four in all, tied to the main pillars by sleeve tie-beams at two levels. Near the top a long tie-beam passes right through the main pillars, and the lintel and cap beam rest above it. Because the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii is so large, the lintel and cap beam are not solid timbers but boxes, and inside them sits close to four tonnes of gravel.
Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education records the height as 16.8 metres and notes that the gate stands in the sea 108 metres out from the main shrine, calling it the tallest and largest wooden torii in Japan. The prefecture also dates the shift to the present ryobu form to the rebuilding of 1547 led by Ouchi Yoshitaka.
Nothing is sunk into the seabed. Pine piles were driven in a dense mass beneath each pillar, a technique the shrine calls senbon-gui, and the gate rests on that bed by weight alone.
The timbers came from far apart. The east main pillar was felled in Okatomi village in Koyu district of Hyuga province, in what is now Miyazaki Prefecture. The west main pillar is a Marugame timber from Sanuki province, joined to a camphor cut on Miyajima itself and clamped at two points with iron bands. The four sleeve posts, the sleeve tie-beams, the lintel and the cap beam were all taken from the island.
The Only Meiji Building Among Itsukushima's Designated Structures
The Agency for Cultural Affairs classifies the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii under modern religious architecture, dated to Meiji 8, or 1875. Every other designated structure on the shrine's precinct is medieval or earlier. A gate rebuilt in the 1870s sits in the same register as halls of the 1240s, and it earns that place because the form itself is old even though the timber is not.
The designation of 5 April 1899 covers one structure. Two ridge tablets were later added as Tsuketari, attached property recorded alongside the main item. The gate also stands within the area inscribed in 1996 as the World Heritage site Itsukushima Shinto Shrine.
What the designation protects is a method rather than a set of boards. A gate that is not anchored, that carries ballast in its own roof, and that is expected to be renewed pillar by pillar over centuries, is a different kind of object from a building. The Important Cultural Property status recognises the continuity of that method across nine rebuildings.
What the 2019 Repair Opened Up
Between June 2019 and December 2022 the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii was wrapped in scaffolding and a temporary jetty was built out to it. The shrine published its findings, and they are unusually frank.
The cypress-bark roof had last been laid twenty-five years earlier and the surface was worn through. Paint was fifteen years old. The plaque had been repaired eleven years before. Those were the expected items.
The unexpected part was inside the pillars. Termites had worked upward from the base into the hollow camphor, and the concrete poured into the rotten cavities during the 1909 repair had not stopped them; the insects simply carried on above it, reaching into the box lintel. Two marine borers had been eating at the waterline for far longer, one boring holes five to eight millimetres across, the other about one millimetre. The shrine dates the second species' arrival to the later Edo period.
Investigators used resistograph readings, simple X-ray, radar and endoscopes before any timber was cut. Rotten pockets were then filled with camphor blocks shaped to the cavity and locked with drum-shaped keys. Where the long tie-beam pierces the main pillar the section left is thin, so carbon fibre was wrapped around it, coated with vermilion-tinted resin and combed while wet so the surface would read as wood grain from the shore. Super-stainless bands were tightened at three points on each main pillar. Inside the lintel a steel frame was built and bolted down to the pillar heads at four places, and the original gravel was returned to where it had been.
The old red-lead paint was taken off by blasting so that none of it entered the sea. Three or more coats of vermilion went on afterwards. Access hatches into the roof boxes were increased from three to four, which will make the next inspection easier. The work was carried out with subsidy and guidance from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Hiroshima Prefecture and Hatsukaichi City.
Seeing the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii
The gate stands outdoors and costs nothing to look at. You can walk the shoreline at Mikasa-no-hama and the West Matsubara embankment at any hour, and photography is not restricted. Entering the shrine buildings is separate: 300 yen for adults, 200 for high school students and 100 for younger students, with the shrine open from 6:30 a.m. and closing between 5:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. depending on the season.
The tide decides what kind of visit you get. At low water the sand flat is exposed and people walk right up to the pillars, close enough to see the iron bands and the joins in the camphor. At high water the gate appears to sit on the surface. Neither is better; they are two different objects. Tide times shift by roughly fifty minutes a day, so check them before deciding when to cross.
Getting there means a ferry. From JR Miyajimaguchi Station or the Hiroden stop of the same name, the crossing takes about ten minutes, and it is about a ten-minute walk from Miyajima pier to the shrine entrance. Since 1 October 2023 Hatsukaichi City has levied a Miyajima visitor tax of 100 yen per entry, added to the ferry fare, with a 500 yen annual option for frequent visitors. There is no parking at the shrine.
Q&A
- Is the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii still covered in scaffolding?
- No. The repair ran from June 2019 and was completed in December 2022, and the scaffolding and netting have been removed. Other work continues elsewhere on the precinct, so it is worth checking the shrine's construction page before a visit.
- Can you walk out to the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii?
- Yes, when the tide is low enough to expose the sand flat. Footing is uneven and wet, and the water returns steadily, so wear shoes you can rinse and keep an eye on the tide.
- Do you need a ticket to see the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii?
- No. The gate is visible from public shoreline free of charge. The 300 yen adult fee applies only if you go inside the shrine buildings and their corridors.
- Why does the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii not fall over?
- Its own mass holds it down. The pillars are not buried; they sit on a bed of densely driven pine piles, and the box-section lintel and cap beam carry close to four tonnes of gravel as ballast. Four sleeve posts brace the two main pillars against wind and wave.
- When is the best light for photographing the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii?
- Late afternoon puts the sun behind the gate as seen from the shrine, which suits silhouettes. Morning light from the east side shows the vermilion and the grain-combed resin repairs. The gate is lit after dark until around 11:00 p.m.
- Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, List of Nationally and Prefecturally Designated Cultural Properties (PDF)
- https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/640309.pdf
Basic Information
| Name | Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii (厳島神社大鳥居, Itsukushima Jinja Otorii) |
|---|---|
| Location | Miyajima-cho, Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property. Within the World Heritage site Itsukushima Shinto Shrine |
| Year Designated | 1899 (5 April) |
| Quantity | 1 structure; 2 ridge tablets as attached property |
| Dimensions | Wooden ryobu torii, cypress bark roof, vermilion, height 16.8 m, 1875. 2 camphor main pillars with 4 cedar sleeve posts; box-section lintel and cap beam holding close to 4 tonnes of gravel |
| Owner | Itsukushima Shrine |
| Public Access | Outdoors, viewable at any time without charge. Shrine buildings from 6:30 a.m., adults 300 yen, high school students 200, younger students 100. Miyajima visitor tax 100 yen per entry |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3175
- Cultural Heritage Online: Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/176412
- Itsukushima Shrine, Repair of the Great Torii, an Important Cultural Property (PDF)
- https://www.itsukushimajinja.jp/jp/images/040_page/construction/pamphlet_hp.pdf
- Itsukushima Shrine, Condition and Repair of the Great Torii (PDF)
- https://www.itsukushimajinja.jp/jp/images/040_page/construction/kouji_230214.pdf
- Itsukushima Shrine, Opening Hours and Admission
- https://www.itsukushimajinja.jp/jp/admission.html
- Hatsukaichi City, Outline of the Miyajima Visitor Tax
- https://www.city.hatsukaichi.hiroshima.jp/soshiki/110/59551.html
- Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, List of Nationally and Prefecturally Designated Cultural Properties (PDF)
- https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/640309.pdf
Last verified: 2026.09.08