Gateways: In-between Worlds
As a continuation from stories of the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), the design and name of the Dokāna cult-gate reflects the evolving nature of the lattice design from basic fishing net patterns to a gateway between worlds. There is also the linguistic connection that had been made between the word Dokāna and the related word “diktyātos” meaning ‘made in a net fashion… lattice, trellised’, which is believed to be its origin (LSJ, s.v.). The design appears on entryways and as vaulted temple column capitals through time and space from the expansive Roman Empire: Portugal to Jerusalem and beyond. With various versions of openings to the underworld or the heavens appearing in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Scandinavia, and from India to Japan.
Chthonic Deities
Dōkana
In the Odyssey Homer said that the Dioskouroi are an important link to the Gods because of their act of presiding over oath making, with an analogy to the farming of wheat. Homer alluded to the analogous etymological roots of ‘physizoos aia’ when he said “physizoos aia holds both of them, yet they are still living” (Od. 11.300-1). ‘Phyō’, where we get ‘physizoos’, means ‘to bring forth’ or ‘to produce’ and ‘aia’ is from ‘zeiai’ meaning ‘wheat’, or is also connected to the Earth or Gaia, thus ‘life’ (Floyd, 1989: 341 n.13, 1989: 377; Heubeck, 1989: 96; LSJ s.vv zeia, phyō, Silver, 1992: 100). In either case, it seems that in Homer’s use, the phrase means ‘life producing’ also ties to ‘wheat/grain producing’ (Floyd, 1989: 377) and to ‘wealth producing/giving,’ because aia also means ‘treasury’ or ‘an underground place of storage.’ This may have come from the myth of the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece from the Argonautica, a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC, in which the fleece (being the gold) was stored in the underground location called an aia (Silver, 1991; 1992: 101). The Argonaut's duty was to collect the fleece from King Aeetes of Colchis, the region by the Black Sea in modern-day Georgia (theoi.com, 2019). Long story short, the king didn't want to give up the fleece, so his wife Medea led the group to the fleece, which was, oddly, hanging on a sacred oak tree in some versions (theoi.com, 2019).
The twins reflect this gateway on their own as chthonic gods, with their symbols of snakes climbing up the dokāna gate pillars. Snakes are sometimes improperly considered to be wicked or evil creatures, but the opposite is often true in many ancient cultures. [A More in-depth talk of special snakes can be found on OSP with Quetzalcoatl.] In the ancient Greek world, they are seen to be constantly moving between the heavens and Hades like the twin brothers. Even one of the epithets that Zeus had, Zeus Ktesibios from ktēsis, meaning ‘possessing property’ was shown as a snake (Harrison, 1927: 297-301; LSJ s.v. ktesibios; Silver, 1992: 101). When culturally connected with oaths taken in front of the Laconian cult-gate (dōkana-gate symbol), contracts would be privy to the Gods as well, so it was most important that they were kept. These symbols, the of netting and the snakes, representing the heroic deeds of the brothers would appear at the tops of columns, in art pieces, and in structural architecture, and on temple arches. While not directly connected in architectural style, the symbology still existed in Mesopotamia as “the vault of heaven”, in Egypt, as the “door of the sky”, and in Rome, as “a vaulted underground chamber called mundus ‘sky’ ” (Rykwert, 1976: 124; Waites, 1919). With the snake as a guardian, it was a nod to the twin gates and the punishments that would be inflicted on individuals who would break their oaths, no matter which gods they were made under (Griffiths, 1970: 371; Homung, 1982: 29; Silver, 1992:102). Stories tell that the ‘unworthy’ would be caught up in the snakes and netting and sent for punishment in the underworld.
1) Dokana representing the house while the Dioskouri twins are themselves the house gods, often represented by amphorae (Nilsson, 1940).
2) The Spartan army's “beam figure” 'ordókana' carried in front of the army on campaign Waites, 1919).
3) Frieze with dokana, the symbol of Dioscuri, Sparta, Greece, (5th century BC). Sparta, Arheologikó Moussío (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images).
4) Spartan shield emblem:" Dokana Of Dioskouroi " the emblem of Kings bodyguards. The Spartan King was accompanied by two bodyguards who were Olympic champions and had olive wreath also known as kotinos on their helmets, and the emblem of twins spartan gods "Dioskouroi" on their shields (Plutarch).
Pillars of Herakles/Hercules
The netting design from the twins is also reminiscent of the designs of the pillars of Herakles. [pics] These were set up by Solomon as part of the architecture of the Temple of Jerusalem (1 Kgs 7.21). The biblical account in 1 Kgs 7.17, explains that the capital/ornamented top of the pillars had trellis – or net-work designs. This ‘trellis-work’ (śebaka from a root of ‘interweave’) denotes the lattice of a window in 2 Kgs 1.2, and its parallelism with ‘net’ (reshef) in Job 18.8 (Gray, 1970: 185; Ouellette, 1976: 7-8; Silver, 1992: 291). This information comes from the biblical myth of ‘Jacob at Bethel’ (Silver, 1992: 291).
This temple, however, wasn’t the origin for this connection with a gateway. That began in the tales of Herakles’ twelve labors, specifically his tenth, wherein Herakles had to collect the cattle of Geryon from the far west, after crossing the Libyan desert, and bring them back to Eurystheus (Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 2.5.10.). This area, being the western edge of the Ancient Greece world, was part of the Mauretanian colonies (present-day Morocco) (Strabo, 3.5.5). In this region, the sea-traveling Phoenicians had already laid down trade routes and had transferred their gods along with them. Because of the connections between these groups, gods and heroes like Herakles/Hercules were conflated with local gods. For Herakles, specifically, the Phoenician and Punic counterpart was Melqart, “the Lord of Tyre”, king of the Underworld, protector of the Universe and the annual vegetation cycle ("Melqart". www2.uned.es; "Melqart | Phoenician deity". Encyclopedia Britannica; Strabo 3.5.5–6).
1) Modern conjectural depiction of the lost western section of the Tabula Peutingeriana, showing a representation of the Pillars of Hercules (Columne Ercole). [compiled by Conradi Millieri (1887/1888)]
2) Pillars of Hercules from Mediterranean Sea: left, Jebel Musa, right, the Rock of Gibraltar (by Gregor Rom).
3) Jebel Musa, one of the candidates for the North African Pillar of Hercules, as seen from Tarifa, at the other shore of the Strait of Gibraltar (by jose rambaud).
4) The European Pillar of Hercules: the Rock of Gibraltar (foreground), with the North African shore and Jebel Musa in the background (by Hansvandervliet).
5) Stela from Amrit with Melqart on his lion, from Amrit in Syria c. 550 BC (Photographed by AlexanderVanLoon during temporary exhibition at Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the Netherlands).
6) The Bir Hadad or "Melqart stele", 9th century BCE (from the Aleppo Museum).
On the island of Gades/Gadeira (modern day Cádiz), the city-state of Tyre contained the westernmost temple of Tyrian, where these deities were worshipped during the height of Phoenician culture (1000-500 BCE) (Semmler, 2001; "Melqart | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com). Herodotus wrote that the “Pillars of Melqart” of this island temple, were the true Pillars of Hercules (Burkert, 1985). The pillars appear in the mythos with great variety, depending on which version one reads. Due to its location in the ancient world, the Strait of Gibraltar was seen as the gateway to the edge of the known world (not literally the edge) and it opened to a world of gods and monsters. In some sources, Herakles built the mountains on either side of the channel (Monte Hacho and Jebel Musa) to either give Atlas freedom from holding up the sky, or to narrow the channel to keep larger monsters from entering the Mediterranean Sea (Diodorus 4.18.5.). Meanwhile, in some Roman texts, Hercules created the channel himself, by smashing through the mountain that used to be Atlas, instead of climbing it, so he could easily sail to the garden of the Hesperides on the island Erytheia (Seneca, Hercules Furens 235ff.; Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1240; Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii.4; Strabo, 3.5.3.). These mountains, as the Pillars, were so well recorded down the centuries, that Spain added them to their coat of arms, and the coats of arms of areas such as Cádiz, several states in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and on the seal of San Diego, California.
1) Emblems of Charles V of Spain in the Town Hall of Seville (Ignacio Gavira)
2) Limoges enamel depicting Hercules carrying the two columns, by Couly Nouailher, mid-16th century (Walters Art Museum).
3) Leone Leoni. The Pillars of Hercules [reverse]. Bronze, 1553. 4.2 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift of Lisa and Leonard Baskin.
10) Seal of San Diego, California.
12) Coat of arms of Cádiz.
Mesopotamia’s ‘vault of heaven’
The money angle reasserts itself in an ancient Assyrian text describing business transactions in front of the lattice design. It is not in a direct mythological context, but, in a legal dispute between two merchants concerning a large shipment of copper, one person swore an oath of purgation, meaning that he was putting himself in the gods’ hands (Adelson & Baker, 1952). The Oath of Purgation of Pope Leo III in 800. Traditio, 35-80. The other had to document everything in the text called The Gate of The God. What the ‘everything’ covers are “costs of transport, deficiencies caused by weights (used), and losses in all 15 minas [a unit of weight and currency] compensates half of it” (Veenhof, 1972: 52-53).
Egypt’s ‘door of the sky’
In ancient Egyptian mythology, there are twelve gates that each soul must pass through on their journey to the afterlife. These gates weren’t often tied to the lattice directly in myths, however, most of the gates of night, that souls have to pass through, are either guarded by, or one is helped through by, snakes. [See Ra’s Journey video by Overly Sarcastic Productions for loads of snakes]. One version of a dōkana type gateway is found in the Book of Gates, from the New Kingdom, which narrates the passing of an individual (Hornung, 1999). Another major illustrated compendium of Egyptian texts, with dispirit pieces being written by multiple people over decades. There is not one single canonical copy, with most small ‘versions’ being written by scribes on papyrus scrolls upon commission, usually costing a deben of silver (Taylor, 2010: 62, 264). This ‘book’ is called The Book of the Dead, even though the name translates closer too ‘Book of [Coming Forth by Day or Emerging Forth into the Light] (D'Auria 1988: 187; Taylor, 2010: 55). This was ‘written’ in the New Kingdom and contains the magic spells that would assist the dead on their journeys. These spells were copies of the older coffin and pyramid texts dating from the 3rd millennium BCE (Taylor, 2010: 54). While there weren’t outright descriptions of latticework, there are indirect links through the flowers (gardens), which covered dōkana pillars over the gods, possibly depicting another symbolic connection between the worlds of life and death.
1) The journey of Ra among the underworld deities — from the tomb of Pharaoh Merneptah (c. 1213–1203 BC) (Ben Pirard, 2007).
2) "Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors" from Book of the Dead spells 144 and 145 or 146 from the Papyrus of Ani - http://projects.vassar.edu/bookofthedead/ (Taylor, 2010: 143).
False Doors, also known as ka-doors, are common as ‘gate-/doorways’ to the afterlife. As pointed out in [my Egyptian temple blog], the doorways were built literally into walls, or appeared as sunken relief stelae made mostly of limestone blocks. These doorways date back to the Old Kingdom, with some of the first being in the mastabas built in the first dynasty in Abydos and Naqadah. Here we find the ka-doors “on all four sides” with offering niches underneath (Reisner, 1934: 579-80; Wilson, 1944). Smaller mastabas were also found with these doorway facades, but they usually only had one or two, and were more common Dynasty 3 onward (Reisner, 1934: 580-1).
1) Egyptian false door, c 2400 BC ( by Sharron Mollerus)
2) Old Kingdom false door depiction of tomb owner, called Imhotep, sitting in front of an offering table (rectangular section in top half of door). This false door exhibited at Ankhmahor's tomb entrance (HoremWeb, 2009).
3) Mereruka vizier's funeral statue in front of his false door at his Saqqara tomb (by HoremWeb, 2004)
The Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál, 22
Lattice has been translated, depending on the text, as a net, fence, and gate. Working as a sacred ‘entergate’, the lattice can be barrier for trespassers or an entryway for the welcome souls. In a section from the translated text,
“Valgrind is the lattice called
in the plain that stand,
holy before the holy gates
but few only know
how it is closed with lock”.
- Translation by Thorpe, 1866 in Edda Sæmunder Hinns Frôda
For a slight explanation, Valgrind is the “Deathgate”, a name of the outer gate to Valhalla, the afterlife of warriors who died in battle. This name translated from Old Norse means ‘fence of the fallen cross’. Depending on which story one reads Valgrind is either one of 540 gates that lead to Valhalla or is the name of the fence around Hel in general (Smek, 1993). In either case, this gate is one, which only allowed the best dead warriors, chosen by Odin and Freyja, to enter (Herschend, 2002).
Chinese Moon Gates
Much of the purpose of building the moongates, along with openwork windows, was and continues to be for the visual frameworks (Park, 2017). Park continues by describing how the framing gives depth and layers to the garden, giving a special sense of distance and atmosphere to condense and amplify the beautiful of nature (2017). In the moon gate design, the opening is more important than the actual frame itself as the opening is said to be a representation of the full moon (hence the name) and also symbolizes the wish for joy and happiness (Fu, 2002; Knapp, 1990; Steinhardt, 1990).
1) Moon Gate Near The Tower Of Reflection. Garden Of The Humble Administrator, Suzhou.
Three typical features of Chinese gardens are seen here: pierced lattice windows, an up-and-down curving "dragon" wall, and a circular "moongate" that frames the walking path (by G41rn8, 2008).
2) This Chinese moon gate is in the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. (by Jonathan Cohen/commons.wikimedia.org).
3) A brick moon gate is part of the 18th-century Walled Garden at West Green House, a historic country manor in Hampshire County, England (from visit-hampshire.co.uk).
4) How to take charge of your Landscape (photo by Clive Nichols).
Not all Chinese Moon gates (月亮门; yuèliàngmén) are built with the lattice or trellis motif, it doesn’t seem to matter for the importance for luck and the manook of displaying class and nobility (Poore, 2019). Walkways are often included within the solid dragon-walls [with the curving top], along with lattice designed windows (Gunther: “www.art-and-archaeology.com"). As the design spread throughout the world, they would have been built into garden walls or as freestanding structures, for example the gates in Bermuda. These moongates were transposed into wide cultural ubiquity in Bermuda, in the 19thcentury, by Englishmen, such as the Duke of Westminster, who were primarily interested in the ‘displaying of class’ aspect of the original Chinese design ("Bermuda’s Mystical Moongates", 2020). Their symbolism here is a bit distinct because, although it is also for the wish of joy, it is more specifically regarded as good luck for newlyweds to walk through it (Sullivan, 2011).
1) Bermuda moongate (unattributed photo from https://www.gotobermuda.com/article/bermudas-mystical-moongates).
2) A moongate at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club (from Hamilton Princess & Beach Club)
3) Moongate at Palm Grove Gardens (unattributed from https://www.gotobermuda.com).
4) Cannot find the original source of this photo, can't even find where it was taken, but it shows up in onewed.com and gotobermuda.com... sorry to the actual photographer.
Looks like a stargate to me, which I would find VERY lucky to pass through, married or not. In either case it is supposed to be reminiscent of a peaceful experience, Feng Shui, and even Zen Gardens.
Japanese Gateways
Ama and the Dōman
Ama divers, traditionally female free pearl divers, have existed in many provinces across Japan for around 2,000 years (Rahn & Yokoyama, 1965). They use a special technique called isobue (ocean whistle) to prepare for their ~50 second breathe (Wallace, 2010). While on the bottom, either as: kachido ama, swimming from shore to shallow sites, or funado ama, travelling in boats to the deeper sites, these women collect abalone as well as seaweed, sea cucumbers, and sea snails (Starling, 2017).
Aspects of legend come from the belief that abalone and the ama-divers have a spiritual connection with Ise Jingu, a precinct in Japan that houses 125 Shinto shrines dedicated to Amaterasu-Omikami [天照大神/天照大御神/天照皇大神](centered around Naiku) or Toyo’uke-no-Omikami [豊宇気毘売神](centered around Geku), Shinto goddesses of the sun and the universe, and goddess of agriculture and industry, respectively (Matsumura, 1995); Sonoda & Mogi, 1997: 68, 69). Ama- does mean heaven and it is believed that eating abalone contributes to longevity and youth, and therefore the gods would approve of them as a ritual gift. “Three times a year, ama give food offerings called shinsen… composed of noshiawabi…dried strips of abalone meat held together with straw… as part of Shinto rituals to pray for a safe and abundant diving season” (Starling, 2017; Wallace, 2010).
The lattice design appears on their ancient dress that consisted of white loincloths and headscarves marked with too different symbols (Starling, 2017) and today is full body white suits. These symbols are the seiman and the dōman, created with black sewing thread or purple shell dye. The seiman is a 5-pointed star drawn with a single stroke, so there are no gaps for evil to enter, and the dōman is a lattice made up of 5 horizontal lines and 4 vertical lines. The spaces between the lines represent many eyes watching out for evil, and the complex structure means there is no clear entrance for evil to get in (Starling, 2017). These are carried for good luck and protection and legend says that if an ama diver is seen in the ocean without the seiman and dōman, then she is a tomokazuki. The tomokazuki is one of the most feared yōkai, as this sea demon takes on the appearance of an ama diver and will materialize in front of a real diver and will attempt to lure them in by offering abalone (Meyer, 2012; Starling, 2017). If the ama accepts, the tomokazuki leads them deep into the ocean and drowns them, becoming a tomokazuki themselves, spirits of the drowned ama (Starling, 2017).
1) Seiman and Dōman displayed at Toba Sea Folk Museum by Amy Elize 2017
2) Tomokazuki (Yokai) by Matthew Meyer
3) Tomokazuki , the "company diver" by Pauline Nicoli, 2011
Gates to the Shinto Shrine
1) Floating Torii Gate, Japan by Daryl Benson (from Getty Images).
2) A roadside hokora in Yokohama with some white foxes, symbols of "kami" Inari by Urashimataro.
3) Torii gate at Fushimi Inari Shrine (from Dissolve Stock Photos).
Torii are the red/vermillion gateways leading to, at the entrance of, or within, the jinja, or Shinto shrines, marking the space on the other side as sacred ("JAANUS". Torii, January 2010; Picken, 1994). Torii [鳥居] literally translates to bird-abode and jinja [神社] (or shinsha, from older dialects) means “place of the gods”, whose main purpose was not worship, but to enshrine kami (holy powers or spirits) and housing sacred objects (Iwanami Kōjien (広辞苑) Japanese dictionary; "JAANUS". Torii, January 2010; Picken, 1994). Similar to the dōkana gate, the torii represents watched-over gateway between our world and the realm of the gods. While it’s not technically a lattice shape, a similar shaping and inspiration could be drawn upon, especially with the myriad of different styles that the torii can take (examples below).
1)Torii Table
2)Shrine Torii Gate Pack by Tanuki Digital
3) Torii Classes (by Blogodisea, 2013)
The torii first appeared in the mid-Heian period, refenced in a text from 922 CE, with the oldest existent example built in 1535 ("JAANUS". Torii, January 2010). There are various examples of myths and legends ascribing the origins of the torii, that connect it to the torana from India, the pailou from China, and the hongsalmun from Korea, spread through Buddhism. Since, however, the actual origin is unknown, a single theory has not gained widespread acceptance (Bocking, 2005: 319; Collcutt, 1992: 285; Guisso, 1988: 56; "JAANUS". Torii, January 2010; Scheid, 2005; "Torii". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugakuin University. 2005). The etymology has even more speculation built around it. The name of ‘torii’ is thought to be derived from ‘tori-iru’ 通り入る, meaning ‘to pass through and enter’ ("Torii". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugakuin University. 2005). This transitioned to ‘bird perch’, which look similar to actual torii, which are thought to bring good luck to villages by warding off evil spirits (Scheid, 2005). The Indian word torana also means ‘bird perch’ and the tor- part of the word as how several European languages got the word ‘door’ (De Garis, Sakai, Yamaguchi, & Yamaguchi, 1935). The Buddhist style and the torana also look much more lattice-like.
1) Buddhist Torana (Goa university - Konkani Vishvakosh).
2) An Indian Torana in Sanchi Stupa, India (Swapnil.Karambelkar). The stupa dates to the period of the Mauryan Empire (3rd century BC), but the torana itself dates to the Satavahana period, in the 1st century CE. The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
3) Torana Gate, built in 2015, at Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (by Visnu92, 2016).
4) Hindu/ Nagda(Rajasthan) Torana byArnoldBetten
5) Torana of the Hindu Sri Sivan Temple on the left, built in 1993, Paya Lebar, Singapor (by William Cho, 2011).
6) Hindola Torana. 9th century Torana in Madhya Pradesh, India (by Suyash Dwivedi).
7) A Chinese Pailou (by Subcommandante, 2006)
8) Paifang in Shunfeng Park, Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong (by Caiguanhao)
9) A Korean Iljumun, the first gate at the entrance called the "One-Pillar Gate", at Naesosa (by Byungjoon Kim)
In any case, this architecture is seen as a link to the sacred, to the divine. In Japan they are typically red, because of the sacredness and of the color’s connection with the sun, fire, and life, and a possible loose connection to Amaterasu and her other forms of a snake and a dragon (Kidder, 2007; "JAANUS". Torii, January 2010; Takeshi, 1978). The snake aspect brings up another interesting, but completely unintentional, comparison between ancient western and contemporary eastern cultures. Some historians have equated Amaterasu to Helen of Troy, who is also connected to the Orphic snakes of the dōkana gate (Dexter, 1984; Meagher, 2002; O'Brien, 1982). The divine nature of serpents and Amaterasu sleeping with the Saiō (unmarried female in the Imperial family) in those forms, bridged the gap between the worlds. This could, however be an ancient composite with the White Snake Goddess, Benzaiten, or the male snake aspect, Ugajin (Faure, 2015; Kidder, 2007). The Japanese Buddhist goddess originated from the Hindu goddess Saraswati (Ludvik, 2001). Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the 6th through 8th centuries, mainly via the Chinese translations of the Sutra of Golden Light (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 1997: 24-25, 397) connecting the torii gateways and shinto shrines across space and through time.
1) Japanese Sun goddess Amaterasu emerging from a cave. By Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞)
2) "Benzaiten is a Japanese water goddess of fertility and flow—of rivers and waters, language and poetry, music, dance, and abundant wealth and good fortune. Benzaiten is the only female figure within “The Seven Lucky Gods” (known as the Shichi Fukujin) of Japanese Shintōism, and most often appears with a white snake as her headdress. Dragons and serpents are her messengers and avatars, and she herself can appear as a white snake." (Serpent Sanctum, 2017).
3) Statue of Benzaiten, a torii and a male Ugajin visible on her head (whose coiled serpent body is barely visible behind her crown). Hogonji in Nagahama, Shiga prefecture, Japan.
The design, and the historical and mythological context, could be and has been greatly expanded upon, but I’ll leave that to those with more knowledge and cultural understanding than I (links below).
Break-down
It doesn’t seem to go much deeper than what the myths show. In many contexts, the lattice is a gateway that carries extra connotations, as shown by its use within a specific culture. It’s a portal and a window to the underworld/heavens and a trap for oath-breakers. Otherwise, lattices, as doorways to the heavens, regularly appear in public places, and on public buildings, because the tradition was to swear oaths and honorable contracts in front of others. Plus, the gods are just watching over the citizens in general. There does seem to be a theme of, somebody is watching you, from the other side. Which are what windows are good for, a barrier that is transparent.
Further Reading/ Videos
The Book of Gates: (Wallis Budge & Ernest Alfred Thompson, 1905). https://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/gate/gate20.htm
Jingushicho. Ise Shrine official homepage: Toyo’ukedaijingu (Geku) http://www.isejingu.or.jp/foreign/about/index.html
More about Ama-divers (from an English outside perspective): TV, Tern. "Japan's last female 'Ama' pearl-divers". www.bbc.com.
Breen, John; Teeuwen, Mark (2000). Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. University of Hawaii Press.
List of Shinto Shrines and general background info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto_shrine#cite_note-IK-2
Ashkenazy, Michael (November 5, 2003). Handbook of Japanese Mythology (World Mythology) (Hardcover)
Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University
Citations
Adelson, H., & Baker, R. (1952). The Oath of Purgation of Pope Leo III in 800. Tradition, 35-80.
Bermuda’s Mystical Moongates. (2020). Retrieved 6 August 2020, from https://www.gotobermuda.com/article/bermudas-mystical-moongates
Bocking, Brian (30 September 2005). A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Routledge. p. 319.
Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek Religion. Harvard University Press. p. 210.
Collcutt, M. (1992). James Edward Ketelaar. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1990. Pp. xiv, 285.
D'Auria, S (et al.) Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989.
De Garis, F., Sakai, A., Yamaguchi, S., & Yamaguchi, K. (1935). We Japanese: being descriptions of many of the customs, manners, ceremonies, festivals, arts and crafts of the Japanese besides numerous other subjects (Vol. 1). Yamagata Press.
Dexter, Miriam Robbins.(1984). "Proto-Indo-European Sun Maidens and Gods of the Moon." In: Mankind Quarterly 25:1–2 (Fall/Winter), pp. 137–144.
Faure, B. (2015). Protectors and Predators: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 2. University of Hawaii Press.
Fu, X., Guo, D., Liu, X., Pan, G., Qiao, Y., & Sun, D. (2002). Chinese architecture. Yale University Press.
Guisso, Richard W. I.; Yu, Chai-Shin (1 January 1988). Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea. Jain Publishing Company. p. 56.
Herschend, F. (2002). Codex Regius 2365, 4to-purposeful collection and conscious composition. Arkiv för nordisk filologi, 117, 121-143.
Heubeck, A., & Hoekstra, A. (1989). A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey, Volume II: Books IX-XVI.
Hornung, E. (1999). The ancient Egyptian books of the afterlife. Cornell University Press.
Kidder, Jonathan Edward (2007). Himiko and Japan's Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai: Archaeology, History, and Mythology. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. p. 265.
Knapp, R. G. (1990). The Chinese house: Craft, symbol, and the folk tradition. Oxford University Press, USA.
Matsumura, Akira, ed. (1995). 大辞林. Daijirin (in Japanese) (2nd ed.). Sanseido Books.
Meyer, M. (2012). The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: a Field Guide to Japanese Yōkai.
Meagher, Robert E. (2002). The Meaning of Helen: In Search of an Ancient Icon. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. pp. 46ff.
Nilsson, M. P. (1940). Greek popular religion.. (Vol. 1). Library of Alexandria.
O'Brien, Steven. "Dioscuric Elements in Celtic and Germanic Mythology". In: Journal of Indo-European Studies 10:1–2 (Spring–Summer, 1982), pp. 117–136.
Park, E. (2017). Visual Landscape Structure and Multi-layer Landscape Experience at Jichang Garden in China. 동아시아경관연구 (구 휴양 및 경관연구), 11(2), 13-23.
Picken, S. D. (1994). Essentials of Shinto: An analytical guide to principal teachings. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Poore, P. (2019, June 11). Art & Science of The Moon Gate. Retrieved August 03, 2020, https://www.oldhouseonline.com/gardens-and-exteriors/moon-gate
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