About this project

American Torii catalogs torii across the Americas — regardless of whether a Shinto shrine is associated with them. Outlying parts of American countries (such as Hawaii and the Northern Mariana Islands) are also included.

What counts as a torii here

Any permanent structure built and presented as a torii — the traditional gateway form with two uprights and one or more horizontal lintels — regardless of its setting or purpose. That includes torii in:

• public parks and gardens
• Japanese and botanical gardens
• university and museum grounds
• sister-city and memorial gifts
• private property (where publicly documented)

Torii families

Torii designs can generally be classified into two broad families comprising many types: shinmei and myōjin. While some English-language sources (e.g. Wikipedia) use the presence of curved members as the defining characteristic of the latter, this catalog uses another: the presence of a secondary lintel (shimaki) directly beneath the top beam (kasagi). This catalog uses the shimaki criterion because it is unambiguous in the field and (usually) reflects construction lineage rather than silhouette. Straight-lintel gates with a shimaki (such as kasuga torii) are therefore listed here as members of the myōjin family, not of the shinmei family.

Corrections

Spotted an error or know a torii that's missing? See the Contribute page.