Shintoism and Japanese culture is very concerned with the borders between things, in and out, uchi and soto, honne and tatemae, and most of all pure and unclean. Therefore things that lie on the threshold, things that are in grey areas or other forms of transition are very threatening in the Shinto mindset.
Mekari Jinja is located on the northernmost part of Kyushu and marks the narrow boundary between the islands of Kyushu and Honshu. (note: photo is a work in progress composite panorama of over 40 separate images, so some visual glitches and inconsistencies are still present.)
During the Kuruma fire festival in Kyoto, the barrier between the inside and the outside of the shrine is carefully breached with a special ceremony.
A few other examples of liminality appearing in Japanese culture:
toori gates mark the entrance to shrines
miyajima's itsukushima shrine has a toori gate that marks the spaces between land and sea and the low tide and high tide.
gates on houses. even ones that have apparent function.
changes in the seasons, year end, beginning, solstices and equinoxes are all carefully marked and guarded with festivals, traditions and ceremonies.
salt is often placed on the boundaries of a property, on the cardinal directions creating a sort of spiritual barrier to protect the property from uncleanliness and promote good business.
*Via dictionary.com: The word liminality is defined as "the condition of being on a threshold or at the beginning of a process" and stems from the latin limen 'threshold'
Perhaps some mention of Victor Turner and his use of liminality would be helpful here.
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