A map of torii around the world | Hacker News Reader

A map of torii around the world

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100 pointsilamont48 comments

Hi everyone! This is Dr. Kaitlyn Ugoretz, the creator of the map. I had no idea folks were talking about it here until someone just sent me the link. This is an early work-in-progress for my second book project. I created it to test a theory and never expected to find so many torii, but now it’s kind of addictive. Gotta catch ‘em all! Most of them I find myself through social media research, but many ppl have been kind to help me crowdsource info. A couple of responses to the most common comments so far:

1. Thanks for your interest! This is a rly niche area of research, so it’s lovely to know people are engaging with it.

2. I’m sorry about the annoying icons carrying over—I had no idea this was an issue. I’ll try to find a way to fix it if I can. The first link I shared was not a proper share link, just something I grabbed off my phone last minute and pasted on Bluesky.

3. I only include torii on private property with the express permission of the people who live there/own it. I don’t want strangers using my mapping project to creep on unsuspecting people’s houses. That being said, if anyone would like to volunteer their torii, I am happy to add them.

4. In the future (aka when I finish my first book and move on to the second full-time, hopefully with some funding), I’ll be moving the map data to an open access platform.

5. Anyone is welcome to get in contact with me through my website! I will probably lose my current institutional email address soon since I finished my degree, but I will keep the website link updated with my contact info. www.ugoretzresearch.org/contact

6. If you are interested in learning more about torii gates, I’ve been posting threads under #ToriiTuesday on Twitter/X (but not anymore) and Bluesky (current) almost every week for over a year now.

7. Some gates that appear similar to torii are actually a separate category of gate called “mon” in Japan that are based on continental (Chinese & Korean) gate architecture. For example, the mon gate at the Portland Japanese Gardens (doubly confusing bc they have a curator whose surname is Torii!). My policy is not to include mon unless they are identified as torii by the people who built them.

8. Last one, promise. I include both torii that are extant (still there) and historical (used to be there). Some are ephemeral, like festivals and conventions, and some last for a long time. I hope to capture them all. :)

You are missing a whole host of toriis at Fort Campbell, KY. The entire 3rd Brigade (Rakkasan) uses the torii as a unit logo, not just 3-187 (1-187, 626BSB, 1-33 Cavalry, and so on).

You'll also (maybe) find torii in Eastern Afghanistan, that is if the locals left them up.

Thank you so much! When I start working on the book, I think a chapter will be dedicated to the use of the torii as a symbol in the US military, especially the Rakkasans. That's an excellent tip about Afghanistan, I'll see what I can find! _/\_

Missing the small one in Porto Alegre, likely the the southernmost gate in Brazil: https://diariogaucho.clicrbs.com.br/dia-a-dia/noticia/2024/0...

Might want to click "Contact" on her site:

https://ugoretzresearch.org/

Don't know if she's the one who submitted it to HN.

Wow, that’s a beautiful one, thank you! I’ll add it soon. I suspect I am missing A LOT more in Brazil.

There's another small one in Campinas, near the Nipo-Brazilian Institute: https://viajantesemfim.com.br/rua-camargo-paes-um-pedacinho-... (or on GMaps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/P17sBzkNG3Gk4frq5)

I'm sure there are many, many more throughout the country, especially in the states of São Paulo and Paraná.

The Japanese garden fixtures at Kidd Springs Park in Dallas have an interesting history documented in the article linked by clicking that icon.

I believe that if I read it right the torii that had been in place burned or rotted decades ago. Many of the antique Japanese fixtures have been lost over time due to everything from theft to poor record-keeping to decay.

Fortunately the parks department is working to restore as much of the garden as possible using the things that are still in place and with additional pieces donated or procured from other sources.

Fort Worth's Japanese Garden at the Botanical Research Institute's Botanic Gardens is a nice place to visit and relax. The BRI has a dedicated staff to manage their operations and within the last 5-6 years they have changed from a free access to a paid entry to help generate the revenue needed to maintain parks like this. You can still visit without paying if you are part of a group I believe.

Anyway, public sites like these are important today in our society that feels like it has become more insular in many ways in spite of the vast information available about other cultures.

Really cool map! I clicked this link on my phone, and now all the icons are permanently in my Google maps, without a straightforward way to "unsubscribe" from the list (can't see anything in the Lists section, on Android Mobile at least). If anyone knows how to remove these beautiful tori icons that'd be great

I had the same experience, go to layers and there you'll find it under a new section "Explore". Select it to deactivate it.

Have the same problem. Can’t see any “explore” section in the layers on iOS.

“You” at the bottom, scroll down to Maps (icon to the right). Click the Tori list item, View Map Legend, Close.

I had to quit the app and open it again so it shows in the Maps list.

Thanks, this fixed it for me.

1. Switch bottom tab from Explore (map pin icon) to You (bookmark icon)

2. Scroll down to the very very bottom, until a row of icons (Timeline, Following, Maps) appear

3. Click the rightmost icon, Maps, and you will find a list of maps you have opened before

4. Find the Torii map and click into it

5. Click "View map legend" at bottom of screen

6. Click "Close" in upper right

Yep that's it, just so "simple and straightforward" as most Google products have evolved to be, what a pleasant user journey! Promo-oriented product design really hurts my eyes

Force closing Google Maps on iOS also does it for me.

Which means you cannot trust the My Maps feature if you are traveling anywhere with poor cell service. That’s how I know.

On the subject of "world map of a particular item," there is The Guinness Map, a very accessible map of all the world's pubs that serve Guinness ale on tap:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42406157

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii

Also the tag “man_made=torii” on overpass turbo: <http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1Ze7>

Thank you, I'll cross-reference with this!

Mostly off topic, but...

I was surprised to see two listed in South Korea, and at least the one in Seoul (Gimpo Airport) seems outdated - the map links to a photo that looks at least 50 years old. (I found some Korean articles about a shrine in Ulleung Island that was repurposed by residents to a shrine for the "sea spirit," though I couldn't verify if it's the one shown on the map.)

* During Japan's rule over Korea, Japan built shinto shrines all over Korea and forced Koreans to gather and worship the empire. Suffice it to say that these buildings didn't survive Korean independence.

Thanks for your thoughtful engagement with my map! Grey pins are historical torii that do not exist anymore. I haven't really started mapping all of the some 1,600 colonial and settler shrines during Japan's modern imperial expansion, but have included a few. I'm sure there will be many more to add to South Korea in the future. The pin for Ulleung is not an exact location, like you said, I've only found vague information about it so far, but I've seen a photo of it.

Los Angeles. Missing both my front gate and my back gate, and the temple bell just inside, and the kabukimon that leads to the engawa, covered by the nokishita. Shikata ga nai

Doko? ^^;

for people using text only browsers, torii are standalone gates, metaphorical gates if you will, that you see at shrines.

they look something like these: 鳥居 <-- that's kanji for "torii", bird+location :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii

I'm familiar with the Japanese word and I know that isn't a proper pluralization of torus, yet I was still somehow surprised.

What a disappointment, I was expecting a map of toruses around the world

Was expecting a map of bagel and donut shops

Google Maps, but only bagel and donut shops? Sounds like a startup pitch.

Not expecting, but hoping nonetheless.

I was staring at the map for well over 2 minutes, trying to think how "USS Midway" could possibly be a torus.

Cool! Some of these seem like they were around only for a special event and then were torn down; for instance the one in Cremona, Italy labeled "2024 Italian Koi Show".

This is such a great map! Projects like this are really cool, I can imagine author being passionate about this, adding some initial entries and then the community picked up!

Thank you, that’s exactly what happened! I wanted to test a hunch that a majority of torii gates overseas are found in parks/gardens (the environmental connection, green pins) and things just sort of ballooned from there. My work argues that the Japanese religion called Shinto has been global for a long time, something about the visualization of the distribution of these gates makes it click in a way that words can’t.

So would maintaining this map make one a Torii Hunter?

If I had a nickel for every time I was torii hunting and had my searches taken over by Torii Hunter content… XD

There's only one marker in Japan? None in Ōsaka?

Map's description says: A map of torii gates located outside of Japan created by Kaitlyn Ugoretz (UC Santa Barbara/Nanzan University).

Bingo! I will probably die before I could map all the torii in Japan (where I live). But everyone expects torii in Japan. Torii found elsewhere are fascinating to me. ^_^

I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to add every single torii at Fushimi Inari to google maps.

The one in Japan is not really in Japan.

Would be amazing if final results set could be added to OpenStreetMap.

Thanks, they definitely will be in the future! Hoping to get a grant to help support the work.

Almost thought this was a Brit thing

Hate to be that guy, but they missed the torii at the Portland Japanese gardens.

I expect the maintainer of this map would be very happy to get additional reports.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43141966#43144952 is a link to the contact form on her website.

I’m afraid the gate there is technically a mon. T_T

I thought they had a torii, there was a big fuss about them having to move it in one piece instead of disassembling it for some work they were doing.

(You're probably right, I can't find anything about a torii there)

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