Ise Jingu, the Residence of the Goddess

Ise is a complex of 125 Shintō shrines covering an area of about 5,500 hectares of Ise City, Mie Prefecture. It is perhaps the most unassuming building amongst all main shrines and temples of Japan. Why is it then so important?Gekū and Naikū Shrines, located in the Ise complex are Shintō’s most sacred shrines.

Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun Goddess

Naikū enshrines Japan’s most revered deity, Amaterasu Ō-MiKami, the Sun Goddess. Amaterasu is venerated as the ancestor of the Imperial Family and as the tutelary Kami of the Japanese people. Gekū is dedicated to Toyouke Daijingu, the Shintō Deity of clothing, food and housing (basic necessities of life). Access to Gekū and Naikū is strictly limited, with the common public allowed to see little more than the thatched roofs of the central structures, hidden behind four tall wooden fences.

The Transfer Ceremony at Ise Shrine – woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1847 - 1852)

Yet the most impressing feature of Ise is that every 20 years, Naikū and Gekū shrines are completely destroyed and rebuilt. It is a custom that have been practised for almost 2,000 years as part of the Shintō belief of the death and renewal of nature and the ephemerality of all things — wabi-sabi — and as a way of passing building techniques from one generation to the next. The twenty-year renewal process is called the Shikinen Sengū and the last one took place in 2013.