Hey guys - I had a question about tagging "wayside shrines." The wiki posits that they are Christian, but I want to use them for another religion. This led me to think about other religion-neutral tags main tags, and using a subtag for the object.
here in Japan, there are probably tens of thousands of reeeaally small (Shinto) shrines and (occasionally Buddhist) temples. They are usually along roads, but sometimes hiking trails as well. The shinto ones are usually for natural beauty - this one is probably for this waterfall, though I could be mistaken. This one is 2mx2m. if you open it, there is just stuff inside, there isn't room for a person. This one is also fairly elaborate, with a gate, bridge and stairway, but others are just a small shed (sometimes less than 1m sq) and disused. If it wasn't religious, I'd tag most of them as a simple shed. They get placed all over, but here in rural Japan I find them on mountainsides, hilltops, and near bridges and lakes. In theory, besides the buddhist statuses and shinto gates, there are also really really tiny shines, about the size of a large trash can as well, but right now I'm just talking of something similar to what is in the picture. To me, this is also a "wayside shrine." Am I right? Speaking of gates, some Japanese OSM mappers are mistakenly tagging barrier:gate onto shinto gates (when it is in no way a barrier) - as if people were tagging Highway=crossing onto Christian crosses. Man_made=cross or historic=wayside_cross similarly is geared for Christian religion, but there are millions upon millions of Shinto Gates and small figures of Buddha (ones you wouldn't think of as "statues", like the big copper buddha at Kamakura) - but the existing tags are not religious-neutral and paired with the religion tag or a subtag to handle these; ie manmade=ReligiousSymbol, religiousSymbol= Wayside Cross, Shinto Gate, Buddha Statue, Spaghetti Meatball, etc.... I know that There must be many other symbols in other religions used regionally that I don't know of, so having an expanding sub-tag is better than filling up historic=, building=, and manmade= with more and more narrow tags as OSM gets more detail added from non-christian areas. Javbw Roadside shrine on the road to Kusatsu, Gunma - Winter 2009.
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