They may have originated from the practice of placing bird perches before an altar that is associated with the Tokoyo no naganakidori (roosters) that were made to crow so as to draw Amaterasu Omikami (a female Shinto deity) out of Ama no iwato (literally, "the rock cave of heaven"), but other scholars suggest that they have foreign origins, believing that they may be related to one of the following: the torana (gate) of Indian Buddhism; the kahyo (a type of ceromonial column called "huabiao" in Chinese), torizao (a type of bird-catching pole), or pailo (a piece of architecture shaped like an archway) of China; the kozenmon (a red gate) of the Korean Peninsula; or the portable temples of Israel.
アマテラス（あまてらすおおみかみ）を天岩戸から誘い出すために鳴かせた「常世の長鳴鳥」（ニワトリ）に因み、神前に鶏の止まり木を置いたことが起源であるとする説、インド仏教にみられるトラナや中国の華表や鳥竿、牌楼（ぱいろう）、朝鮮半島の紅箭門（こうぜんもん）、イスラエルの移動型神殿など海外に起源を求める説などがある。