I've always had a strange fascination with torii (the traditional entrance gate to a Japanese shrine), and have done paintings of several. Though to be honest I'm not sure exactly what attracts me to them.
Almost every shrine you encounter in Japan will have at least one torii, be it made of wood, concrete, stone, or steel; and (depending on the material) will either be coloured red, white, grey or brown. Some shrines will have more than one torii, sometimes many, many more.
The actual purpose of a torii is to mark the boundary between the sacred and profane, so by definition, Hie Shrine in Akasaka must be really, really sacred, as at one of the shrine entrances you have to pass under around 100 torii to get inside. Of course you could just use the newly constructed main entrance that only has one big torii, and (perhaps unprecedented in Japanese shrine construction) an outdoor escalator to take you up to the top...
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