Danbooru

Tag discussion / cleanup: shrine, temple, torii

Posted under General

It's not uncommon to see shrines mistagged as temple. They are distinctly different in Japanese culture, corresponding to Shinto and Buddhism, but seems like they get mixed up quite a lot by people who don't know the distinction. An alias between the two is probably out of the question, though, so a cleanup and clarification in the wiki? Just checking before I proceed.

Though temple is actually quite a mess; I'm not quite sure what's going on there, apart from shrines it also contains pagodas and other ordinary buildings simply because of the traditional Asian architecture. And then there's those that look Grecian/European or plain fantasy.

There's also torii; there are posts that are tagged with shrine when only torii is visible, but not the shrine (building) itself. Torii are closely associated with Shinto shrines, so one might argue for an implication; but they can be quite a distance from the main buildings, and may also be seen in other contexts as well (a few Buddhist temples, tombs...) so I'm not sure how this should be handled. "Tag what you see" seems to suggest that shrine should not be applied at all unless it is actually visible.

Updated

r0d3n7z said:

[A] cleanup and clarification in the wiki?

Supported, if you are up to that much work. However:

And then there's those that look Grecian/European or plain fantasy.

What are you planning to do with those? They are temples, after all.

buddhist_temple implying temple and shinto_shrine implying shrine, perhaps?

Torii are closely associated with Shinto shrines, so one might argue for an implication; but they can be quite a distance from the main buildings[.]

In a comprehensive-school geography book of mine there was a photo of a torii standing in the middle of water, with no sign of a nearby shrine building. This vivid old memory makes me oppose an implication.

"Tag what you see" seems to suggest that shrine should not be applied at all unless it is actually visible.

Supported.

By the way, is it you who has gotten rid of the redundant torii_gate (or whatever) tags? Just some days ago I looked at them like, "Some clean-up needed!" Now they are nowhere.

Katajanmarja said:

And then there's those that look Grecian/European or plain fantasy.

What are you planning to do with those? They are temples, after all.

Without other visual cues indicating a place of worship, I wouldn't assume anything to be a shrine or temple simply based on traditional East Asian architecture (post #480028, post #600117). I figure the same logic should apply with Greco-roman or fantasy structures, so I'd argue for untagging temple.

Katajanmarja said:
is it you who has gotten rid of the redundant torii_gate (or whatever) tags?

I don't think so. Don't really remember. Definitely not if it was within the past couple weeks.
Anyhow that means torii_gate and torii_(gate) now need wiki cleanup, and updating of tag aliases.

r0d3n7z said:

I figure the same logic should apply with Greco-roman or fantasy structures, so I'd argue for untagging temple.

Oh, I misunderstood. Thought you were talking about unquestionable temple buildings in Parthenon style etc., as opposed to Japanese Buddhist temples.

If people have tagged just about anything built in classical orders with temple, yes, that is wrong and I support clean-up.

However, drawing the exact border between temple and not temple might prove difficult. I am sure I am not familiar with all the visual clues that could mark the difference. (But I can tell the interior of a Roman public bath from the Temple of Jupiter. :p )

Then maybe there should be tags for the different styles of architecture? I'm not too knowledgeable about architecture, but at least Greek/Roman style buildings with columns and jazz seem like something that could be tagged, whether they be baths or temples.

zatchii said:
Then maybe there should be tags for the different styles of architecture?

I was pondering something along these lines as well, to make up for the slight loss. Pictures with east asian architecture, greco-roman architecture, gothic architecture, etc should be common enough. Possibly a category for the fantasy stuff as well. Not sure how well such tags will be adopted, but definitely enhances searchability according to building styles, useful for, say, finding Asian castles from amongst all the European/fantasy ones. Incidentally, the tag architecture exists (and is an interesting mix).

Putting aside the shrine/temple thing (I don't know enough to help with making a strict definition) I think the architecture tags are a decent idea. The three listed should cover a lot, and I don't think we need to be much more specific.

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