Miyajima is an island located a few miles off the coast of Hirshima reached by a 10 minute ferry ride.  The island has been considered a holy place for most of Japanese history. According to WikiTravel.Org: "In 806 AD, the monk Kōbō Daishi ascended Mt. Misen and established the mountain as an ascetic site for the Shingon sect of Buddhism. 

In fact, though, the gate is built into the sand and one can walk out to the base at low tide.  Here's two other shots I took of the gate as we visited the island.  The first is my favorite ... and you can get an idea of its size by comparing it to the man standing in the boat in the background:

And, this is a close-up view of the gate:

There are many temples located on the Island, but the largest and most important is the Shinto temple located behind the "gate".  This temple is built on a pier so that it, too, appears to float at high tide.

The temple is "active" and we witnessed several "events" while we wre there.  This first image was taken in one of the rooms.  As always, the light called and I couldn't resist it:

And here's the view through the doorway seen in the center of the image above:

I was struck by the lines and color of the temple buildings.  Here's a simple shot of part of one of the buildings in the temple ... clean parallel and vertical lines painted with the typical bright orange, white and black accent:

I noticed some green color in some of the shots.  Most likely there is some significance to the colors ....

In the next post, I'll some some of the other shots (including some ceremonies) of this beautiful little island.

Bye for now, 

adam