Japanese symbols
The torii, the guardian lion-dogs and the kami of Shinto, family crests and the imperial chrysanthemum, Mount Fuji, and the dragon, koi, crane, hannya mask and daruma of Japanese art and custom.
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Shrines and kami
- Torii (shrine gate)The gateway at the entrance to a Shinto shrine: two upright posts joined by a cap beam and a tie beam. It marks the border between the shrine’s sacred ground and the everyday world outside.
- Komainu (guardian lion-dogs)A pair of lion-like guardians at the entrance to a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple, one usually with its mouth open and the other with it closed. They are there to keep evil away from the kami.
- Amaterasu (the sun kami)Amaterasu Ōmikami is the kami of the sun in Shinto and the ancestral kami of Japan’s imperial family, enshrined at Ise. Her symbol is a mirror: Ise Jingu keeps the Holy Mirror as the symbol of Amaterasu.
- Raijin and Fūjin (thunder and wind)Raijin is the kami of thunder, drawn since the Kamakura period as a demon inside a ring of linked drums. Fūjin is the god of the winds, who carries the winds in a bag. Tawaraya Sōtatsu’s screens show the two together.
Crests and emblems
- Kamon (family crests) and the mitsudomoeKamon are Japanese family crests: small badges of a plant, a bird, an object or a pattern, often set in a circle and worn on formal dress. The mitsudomoe, three comma shapes swirling in a ring, is one of the commonest, on shrines and on drums.
- Chrysanthemum seal (imperial crest)The crest of Japan’s imperial family: a chrysanthemum seen from the front, with sixteen petals and the tips of a second row between them. The same flower is on the cover of the Japanese passport.
- Mount FujiJapan’s highest mountain, 3,776 metres, worshipped as a sacred mountain since at least the eighth century and drawn and painted for nearly a thousand years. UNESCO lists it as a sacred place and source of artistic inspiration.
Creatures in art
- Japanese dragon (ryū)The dragon (ryū, or tatsu) of Japanese art and belief: a scaled, serpent-bodied creature from China that rules water, rain and the sea. Japanese art usually gives it three claws on each foot.
- Koi (carp climbing the waterfall)A carp (koi) leaping up a waterfall is the Japanese picture of effort rewarded: in a Chinese legend, the carp that climbs the falls turns into a dragon. Families fly carp-shaped streamers (koinobori) for their children around 5 May.
- Crane (tsuru) and the thousand paper cranesIn Japan the crane (tsuru) is an emblem of long life. A thousand folded paper cranes (senbazuru) are a wish for a sick person to recover, and since Sadako Sasaki, who folded them in Hiroshima in 1955, a wish for peace.
Masks and charms
- Hannya maskA Noh theatre mask of a woman turned into a demon by jealousy: two horns, gilded eyes, and a mouth split from ear to ear with gold teeth and fangs.
- Daruma dollA round, legless doll of Bodhidharma, the monk said to have brought Zen to China, usually red and sold with its eyes blank. Its owner paints in one eye when making a wish and the other when the wish comes true.
About japanese symbols
These pages are about the symbols of Japanese religion, heraldry and art. The first group belongs to Shinto: the Torii (shrine gate) that marks the entrance to a shrine, the guardian lion-dogs that sit beside it, Amaterasu, the kami of the sun, whose symbol is a mirror, and Raijin and Fūjin, thunder and wind. Then come the crests: the family and shrine crests called Kamon (family crests) and the mitsudomoe, with the swirling mitsudomoe, and the sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum of the imperial family. Mount Fuji is both a sacred mountain and the most painted view in Japan. The last pages are the creatures, masks and charms of Japanese art and custom: the dragon, the carp that climbs the waterfall, the crane and the thousand paper cranes, the Hannya mask mask of the Noh theatre and the Daruma doll doll. The ensō of Zen ink painting is with the Buddhist symbols, the beckoning cat (maneki-neko) with the protective symbols, and the fox, the tengu, the oni and the other creatures of folklore with the yōkai.
Shinto in its own words
Shinto is a living religion, and these pages describe it as its own institutions do. Jinja Honchō, the association of Shinto shrines, says that Shinto has no founder, no dogma and no scripture, and is expressed through reverence for nature and ancestors. Jinja, the shrines, are sacred spaces that enshrine one or more kami, and there are thousands of them across Japan. Shinto, in Jinja Honchō’s words, “is something that you do, rather than something that you are”. It is compatible with another religion or none, and most people in Japan who practise it describe themselves as having no religion or as Buddhist. Kokugakuin University’s Encyclopedia of Shinto, the other main source here, explains how a shrine’s gate, guardians and crest work.
Where the symbols came from
Many of these symbols reached Japan from China, often through Korea, and changed there. The Encyclopedia of Shinto traces the guardian lion-dogs to Tang China, and its entry on dragon worship says the dragon Japanese people prayed to was a deified snake, a water kami, even though the image came from China. Basil Hall Chamberlain, emeritus professor of Japanese at the Imperial University of Tokyo, wrote in 1905 that the dragon was Chinese by origin but thoroughly at home in Japan. Henri Joly’s Legend in Japanese Art (1908), a catalogue of the subjects on netsuke, sword fittings and prints, is the third main source. Joly notes that some of Japan’s emblems of long life, such as the crane, are of Chinese origin.
Sources
- Jinja Honchō (English site), Jinja Honchō (Association of Shinto Shrines), English home page and FAQ, Jinja Honchō, home page; FAQ
- Komainu (Encyclopedia of Shinto), Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University, “Komainu” (Nakayama Kaoru), Kokugakuin University, entry text
- Ryūjin shinkō (Encyclopedia of Shinto), Encyclopedia of Shinto, Kokugakuin University, “Ryūjin shinkō” (Iwai Hiroshi), Kokugakuin University, entry text
- Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese (1905), Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan, fifth edition, London: John Murray, 1905, John Murray (Internet Archive, University of Toronto copy), title page; pp. 443–444, “Superstitions”
- Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art (1908), Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art: A Description of Historical Episodes, Legendary Characters, Folk-lore, Myths, Religious Symbolism Illustrated in the Arts of Old Japan, London: John Lane, 1908, John Lane (Internet Archive, University of Toronto copy), preface; index of subjects (“Longevity”)
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research