Mon (architecture)
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Mon is a generic Japanese term for gate often used, either alone or as a suffix, in referring to the many gates used by Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and traditional-style buildings and castles.
Nikkō Tōshō-gū's omote-mon (front gate) structurally is a hakkyakumon (eight-legged gate)
Hakkyakumon
Heijūmon
Karamon
Torii
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A torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred, and a spot where kam
Mon (architecture)
…the situation. For example, a Niōmon can also be correctly called a nijūmon if it has two stories. Very different structurally from the others is the toriimon (normally called simply torii), a two-legged gate in stone or wood regularly associated with Shinto, but common also within Japanese Buddhist temples…
The torii at Itsukushima Shrine
Buddhist goddess Benzaiten, a torii visible on her head
An Indian torana
A Chinese pailou