Ise Shrine

Ise Shrine, one of the principal shrines of Shintō (the indigenous religion of Japan). It is located near the city of Ise in Mie ken (prefecture), central Honshu. The large shrine complex includes scores of buildings, the two most important being the Inner Shrine (Naikū) and Outer Shrine (Gekū), situated about 4 miles (6 km) apart. Ise Shrine is a major destination for pilgrims and for tourists and has millions of visitors annually.

According to tradition, the Inner Shrine—officially named Kōtai Jingū—was first constructed in 4 bce; most likely, however, the earliest structure dates from sometime later, possibly as early as the 3rd century ce. It is dedicated to Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess and traditional progenitor of the Japanese imperial family. The Sacred Mirror, one of the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan (Sanshu no Jingi), is preserved there. The Outer Shrine (officially Toyouke-daijingū), founded in the late 5th century, is dedicated to Toyuke (Toyouke) Ōkami, the deity of food, clothing, and housing. The shrine is administered by the supreme priestess, the saishu (“chief of the religious ceremonies”); she ranks above the daiguji, the supreme priest.

At both shrines the main building is a thatched hut built in ancient Japanese style with unpainted Japanese cypress (hinoki). Beginning in the 7th century, the buildings of the two shrines and the bridges leading to each shrine’s compound were reconstructed every 20 years in a ritual called the shikinen sengū. That tradition has been carried on almost continuously since then, although there were interruptions in the cycle during the so-called “warring states era” (sengoku-jidai) in the 15th and 16th centuries. Trees used for building materials are raised in the extensive forests that are part of the shrine complex. The reconstruction completed in 2013 was capped in October by a ceremony, attended by tens of thousands of people, in which the deities were ritually transferred from the old structures to the new ones.