A synchronicity of shrine gates on a visit to Y's tonight.
Four-post torii unveiling the day after tomorrow. Y had just handed me a few fliers for the event, showing a photo of the structure, when the man responsible for the project appeared. First heard tell of this four-post torii by email, a month or so ago, far away. It was just some figment then, and now I have met its maker, and shortly I will see It.
Y then mentioned a three-post torii at a shrine on the other side of town. Apparently a very old one, that was originally two-posted, but then the thirteenth lost tribe of Israel came and erected a third post. Really, that's the tale. Y's friend, the four-post gate builder, confirmed it and gave further description of the place. Y says he'll bring me there.
Some minutes later, checking my phone, it occurred to me to ask Y if he knew about the 36 Dohji of Tanukidani (he didn't), and then told him about the broken torii and showed one of the pictures I took of it with my phone on my visit there a few days ago. And the four-post man overheard, and said he'd been there a few weeks ago and seen it too.
The previous picture on my phone, from a day or two earlier, the mini-megalith of sparkling slabs of clear ice I'd set up on a rounded brick in the river, suddenly looking gateish.
