Temple Garden Gatehouse
Japan
The austere lines and simple elegence of Japanese style are very evident in this gatehouse at the entrance to a temple garden. The paper lightening bolts and rice stalks hanging from the rope are typical Shoji symbols. Note the sliding glass window at the bottom, a reminder of sliding paper doors.
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Tomoko writes:
This gatehouse, like other kiosks at shrines and temples, sell votive candles for offering prayers and "omikuji" or fortune. Here, sold at 30 yen, you shake the hexoganol box to extract one of the many numbered bamboo sticks from the small hole on the top. You present the stick to the keeper and they will present you a thin piece of paper pulled out from the drawer with the corresponding number. In more modern, larger, crowded temples, you can retrieve the paper yourself from self-serve drawers.