I went to visit the Itsukushima Shrine in Itsukushima Island (Hiroshima Prefecture). This orange structure is the holy torii gate. The shrine was built in the 1500's and the gate is an entrance that ships would have had to pass through in order to signify entering (and exiting) a holy place. To keep it pristinely holy, even births and deaths are not permitted on the island.
Today, we unfortunately do not go through the gate but rather rather enter at a traditional dock. However, was truly awe-inspiring to visit and step foot on the island. There were some repairs being performed to the gate when I visited so there was scaffolding/canvasing around some its base. We were not permitted to photograph inside shrine holy area. The first photo was actually taken on my cell phone (Nexus 6P) in panorama mode. The others were taken on my Fuji XT-2 with 18-55mm f/2.8 lens.
Views of the shrine:
(Click to Enlarge)
(Click to Enlarge)
