Otorii

This guide to the Otorii in Hiroshima starts with a number everyone got wrong for nearly a hundred and fifty years, an official count of torii gates built on this spot that researchers later found didn't add up against the shrine's own records. You'll hear about the merchant Koizumi Jinemon, who paid for the current gate in 1875 after storms and rot destroyed the ones before it, and about the very first version raised here around 1168 under the warlord Taira no Kiyomori. The guide also follows the modern battle to keep saltwater and termites from finishing what centuries of weather started. Stand at low tide if you want to walk out and touch the base yourself.