Whale mounds
The oldest one in Japan is the torii of the Ebisu Shrine in Taiji Town, Wakayama Prefecture. This is mentioned in Ihara Saikaku's "Nihon Eitaigura" published in 1688 (Jōkyō5): "In the village of Taiji, Ominato, Kiiro, the wife and children sing. This place is prosperous and Wakamatsu village is standing. According to records, the current torii is the third generation, and it is unknown what it was made of before that. According to records, the current torii is the third generation, and it is not known what it was made of before that. These are all the whale torii gates that exist in Japan today, but there is also a Cape Eluanbi Shrine in Eluanbi, the southernmost point of Taiwan under Japanese rule at the time. There were also whale torii gates at three other shrines: Fudato Ebisu Shrine in Sakhalin, and Shikotan Shrine on Shikotan Island in the Northern Territories. Each of these five locations is either directly or indirectly related to whaling (such as whaling bases).