Make each storey of a pagoda narrower than the one below and derive all from the bay of the first storey; in the oldest Japanese pagodas the top storey is about half as wide as the first.
top storey ≈ ½ first storey (Hōryū-ji)
Two families of torii
Build the shinmei torii with a straight lintel, upright posts and a tie beam that does not project; build the myōjin torii with an upcurved double lintel, posts leaning slightly inward, and a tie beam that passes through them.
The torii marks the passage from the ordinary world into the sacred precinct. The plain shinmei form, used at Ise, is the older; the myōjin form, often lacquered vermilion with a black top lintel, is the most common in Japan. Dozens of variants (with roofs, with extra posts, with curved or straight members) were catalogued in the Edo pattern books.
Related rules
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Two families of torii”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/torii-types. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.