Japanese Wood Ancestral Shrine

A house for those who have gone ahead, raised on legs well above the floor.

This ancestral shrine comes from Japan and dates to the 19th century, made of wood. In Japanese homes, family shrines like this hold memorial tablets and offerings so the living can honor their ancestors each day. This one is built like a small building, with a ribbed tile-effect roof and carved ornaments rising at either end of the ridge. Two lattice doors with round centers stand between slim columns, flanked by more latticed panels. Scrolling vines run along the base. It stands on a separate frame of pierced panels and key-shaped brackets. Sixty-three inches high and 30.25 wide.

It keeps its doors closed, as it should.