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- the continental Buddhist style such as upcurving roofs supported by a system of brackets often decorated with Buddhist motifs. The Shinto shrine in Victoria displays many Chinese structural influences and Buddhist motifs�such as Chinese-style bracketing systems and carvings on the beam member-ends (nosings). The lines of the main building gable roof are cusped and curved, the downward slope having a slight lift at the edges, while the entrance has a gabled roof with undulating bargeboards, a flattened central arch and trailing ends.
The elevated stairway under the porch roof leads to two finely fashioned swinging doors with iron hinges and joinery in various arabesque shapes at the front of the inner compartment. Behind the doors, which are always locked except during rituals, the sacred object would have been enclosed.
At the top of the stairway, a table would have been placed for offerings. An elegant, elevated and railed veranda surrounds the main part of the building. It is too small to be used and is purely ornamental. The back corner posts and upper stair posts are decorated with onion-shaped ornaments (giboshi), which signify the sacred balls of treasure (hoju), often found at Buddhist temples.
One of the most impressive aspects about the shrine is its massive roof structure, with much attention focused on the ornamental ridge-end acroteria or gable ornaments (tsuma-kazari), the chigi (horn-like finials) and ridge billets or katsuogi (round pieces of wood). Chigi and kagsuogi were originally designed to hold down the roof and were found only on Shinto shrines. All the various decorative roof elements on the Victoria shrine, executed in copper are purely ornamental.
Highlighting the structural framework are an astonishing profusion of interesting relief carvings and sculptures in the round, which are to a large extent, of Chinese and Buddhist inspiration. The gable pendants are a variation of the turnip pattern. The curving lines of the design look like turnip tops (kabura-gegyo). Swirls of flowers on the entrance roof gable pendant and cloud scrolls on the main building gable pendant continue down the gable sides. Also halfway down the gable sides are single cloud scrolls. The first archway of the covered entrance is dominated by a lively carving in high-relief of a dragon amidst swirling waves. Dragons or ryu, which are a Chinese motif, are repre�sented in a variety of forms and shapes in Japanese art. They are one of the four sacred creatures and are said to have the powers to live in the heavens, on land and in the water, and are therefore, often represented descending from clouds or ascending from waves. According to legend, the Imperial sword of Japan was found in the tail of the dragon. A frieze of cloud scrolls and a crossbeam with incised floral sprigs appear, respectively, above and below the detailed dragon carving. The second archway of the entrance is embellished with a beautiful openwork relief carving of a swelling wave above a crossbeam with floral sprigs. Panels of cloud scrolls decorate the front and back sides of the main building. In addition, on the upper back side of the shrine is a design of a tall phallic-like mountain rising up to clouds from wind-tossed waves, which is perhaps the Chinese motif of the Mountain of Longevity in the Sea of Happi�ness. In front of it is a bundle of what appear to be immortality fungus (lingzhiin Chinese). Located just under the rib-like rafters of the main building roof are relief carvings of a hawk or falcon on one side and a peony on the other. The
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