Although badly damaged by a typhoon several years ago, the Itsukushima shrine complex on Miyajima island near Hiroshima has been returned to its former splendor. Dating to the sixth century, the shrine's colorful, low-lying structures jutting out into the surrounding shallow tidewater plain are reflective of Chinese- influenced aristocratic palace architecture.
Because worshippers most often approached the shrine by water, the torii gateway marking the entrance to the complex was placed in the adjacent bay -- and subsequently became one of the most famous of the traditional senic icons associated with Japan's indegenous Shinto religious belief structure.
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