ise shrine

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An exploration of how and why places become invested with

SACREDNESSand how theSACREDis embodied or made manifest through

ARTandARCHITECTURE

SHRINE AT ISE, JAPAN

Trees and stones have long been objects of deep devotion inJapan. Originally there were no shrine buildings; instead a tree, forest,or a large boulder or a mountain, festooned with ropes, would be thefocus of worship.

In Japan the mysterious forces of nature, called ke, were believedto permeate palpable matter and formless space (collectively calledmono in Japanese) to create mononoke.Mononoke was seen tocoalesce in trees and stones. Certain trees, especially the cryptomeriaand the evergreen sakaki, were considered sacred for this reason.When one of these trees was felled and the wood used in the
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construction of a shrine, this sacred quality was believed to follow it intothe building. The sacred tree itself was literally and symbolically presentin the form of a pillar or post around which the shrine was constructed.

The great Shinto shrine at Ise is built amid a dense forest of giantcryptomeria trees next to the Isuzu River at the foot of Mount Kamiji andMount Shimaji in the Mie Prefecture [see 1.Mie Prefecture] in southernHonshu, Japan. Crossing the Uji Bridge and passing through the largetoriigate marking the entrance to the shrine, a long path leads to IseJingu (Ise Grand Shrine).

The shrine consists of two groups of buildings: the Imperial Shrine(Kotai Jingu), also known as the Naiku (inner shrine), and the ToyoukeShrine (Toyouke Daijingu ) which constitutes the Geku or outer shrine.

The Naiku is dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami(Heaven-Illuminating Great Deity), and the Geku to the Goddess ofCereals Toyouke Omikami (Abundant Food Great Deity). Each shrine iscomposed of a number of buildings, including ancillary shrines,workshops, storehouses, etc. Each shrine has an inner precinct with amain sanctuary and two attendant shrines, as well as treasuries, fences,and gates.

Both shrines are constructed of wood, and every twenty years bothare totally rebuilt on an adjoining site. The empty site of the previousshrine (called the kodenchi) is strewn with large white pebbles. The onlybuilding on the empty site, which retains its sacredness for theintervening twenty years, is a small wooden shed or hut (oi-ya) inside ofwhich is a post about seven feet high known as shin-no-mihashira(literally the august column of the heart, or more freely translated assacred central post). The new shrine will be erected over and aroundthis post which are the holiest and most mysterious objects in the IseShrine. They remain hidden at all times.
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The oi-ya in the old shrine compound of the Naiku[anotherphotograph of the same]

Kenzo Tange and Noboru Kawazoe (p. 167, see Bibliography below)suggest that:

the erection of a single post in the center of a sacred area strewn withstones represents the form taken by Japanese places of worship in veryancient times; the shin-no-mihashira would thus be the survival of asymbolism from a very pimitive symbolism to the present day.

The present buildings reproduce the temple first ceremoniously

rebuilt in 692 CE by Empress Jito. The first temple had been built by herhusband Emperor Temmu (678-686), the first Mikado to rule over aunited Japan.

Emperor Temmu had established Ise as the principal cult shrine ofImperial Japan, but the site itself, and the cryptomeria trees that grewon it, were already sacred before then. The cryptomeria is a treeassociated with Shinto shrines. The principal sacred plant of Shinto,however, is the sakaki(a shrub related to the tea bush). The shin-no-mihashira is taken to represent a branch of the sakakistuck upright in

the ground.

The chambers of the shrines are raised on timber piles whichthemselves are analogous to the central sacred post. The roof is notsupported by the walls (although the rafters do rest on purlins), but theridge beam is carried instead by two large columns at either end whichembedded directly into the ground without any foundation.
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Besides trees, at the Ise Shrine are many subsidiary shrines ofrocks from the sea which are regarded as the abodes (iwakura or rockabodes) of deities.

Bibliography

Kenzo Tange and Noboru Kawazoe, Ise: Prototype of JapaneseArchitecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1965.

Yasutada Watanabe, Shinto Art: Ise and Izumo Shrines, NewYork: Weatherhill, 1974 (first published in Japanese, 1964).

The Roots of Japanese Architecture, a photographic quest byYukio Futagawa, with text and commentary by Teiji Itoh, NewYork: Harper & Row, 1963 (first published in Japanese, 1962).

Ise Shrine

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"Ise Shrine"

Ise Shrine (Ise-jing) is a Shinto shrine to the goddess Amaterasu mikami,located in the city ofIse in Mie prefecture, Japan.

Officially known simply asJing or "TheShrine," Ise Jing is in fact a shrine complexcomposed of over one hundred individual shrines, divided into two main parts. Gek (

) or the Outer Shrine is located in the town of Yamada and dedicated to the deity

Toyouke no mikami, while Naik () or the Inner Shrine is located in the town of Uji
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Isejingu.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise%2C_Miehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_prefecturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_prefecturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_prefecturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Isejingu.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Isejingu.JPGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grand_Shrine_of_Ise&redirect=nohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Shrine_of_Ise#column-one%23column-onehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Shrine_of_Ise#searchInput%23searchInputhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinja_(shrine)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise%2C_Miehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_prefecturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan


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and dedicated to Amaterasu mikami. The two are located some six kilometers apart,

joined by a pilgrimage road that passes through the old entertainment district of Furuichi.

The High Priestess of the Ise Shrine must come from the Japanese Imperial Family, andprotects over the Shrine. The current High Priest of the shrine is Kuni Kuniaki, son of the

formerPrince Kuni Asaakira (brother of the Empress Kojun).

According to the official chronology, the shrines were originally constructed in the year4

BC, but most historians date them from several hundred years later, with 690 AD widelyconsidered the date when the shrines were first built in their current form. They are

mentioned in the annals of the Kojiki andNihonshoki (dating from 712 and 720,

respectively). The old shrines are dismantled and new ones built to exactingspecifications every 20 years at exorbitant expense. The present buildings, dating from

1993, are the 61st iteration to date and are scheduled for rebuilding in 2013.

The Ise Shrine has a national treasure in its possession. Reputedly the home of the Sacred

Mirror, the shrine is arguably the holiest and most important Shinto site. Access to both

sites is strictly limited, with the common public allowed to see little more than thethatched roofs of the central structures, hidden behind three tall wooden fences.

One of several "Exceptional Shrines" (betsug) at Ise Shrine

The region around the shrines is the Ise-Shima National Parkand has numerous other

holy and historic sites including the 'wedded rocks' Meoto Iwa, and the Saiku (the site of

the Heian period imperial residence
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Toyouke_no_%C5%8Dmikami&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Imperial_Familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Imperial_Familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Kuni_Asaakirahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Kojunhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_BChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/690http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/690http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojikihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonshokihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/712http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Treasure_(Japan)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_imperial_regaliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IseShrineBuilding.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IseShrineBuilding.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IseShrineBuilding.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Toyouke_no_%C5%8Dmikami&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaterasuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Imperial_Familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kuni_Kuniaki&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Kuni_Asaakirahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Kojunhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_BChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_BChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/690http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojikihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonshokihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/712http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Treasure_(Japan)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_imperial_regaliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_imperial_regaliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise-Shima_National_Parkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meoto_Iwahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiku


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ISE: THE HOLIEST SHRINE

(photo credit)The Ise Shrine is rebuilt on an adjacent lot every 20 years.

Outlying building at Ise Shrine building,built in the same style as the main building.(photo credit)

According to Japanese popular

belief, the Ise Shrine complexis the holiest of Japan. It is

located in Ise City in the Mie

Prefecture on the South Eastcoast. The shrine is composed

of two similar complexes. The

earliest complex, said to date

from the third century, is calledtheNaiku, or Inner Shrine. It is

dedicated to the Sun Goddess

Amaterasu Omikami. Thesecond complex, the Geku, or

Outer Shrine, is about six

kilometers (3.7 miles) away. Itis thought to have been built in

the fifth century for Toyouke

no Okami, the Grain Goddess.Building material from roof to

floors for both structures andfinishing comes entirely from

Japanese white cypress,Hinoki. The main building of

the Inner Shrine is designed in

a special form of architecturalstyle, calledshimmei-zukuri.

This style is prohibited for

other shrines. It's simplerectangular design is said to

derive from the granaries and

treasure storehouses of

prehistoric Japan.

The sun goddess Amaterasu

Omikami is the mythical

ancestor of the Imperialfamily. She is represented by

the sacred mirror, one of the

three objects (Imperial

Regalia) symbolic of the divineauthority of the imperial

family. Legend holds that the

inner shrine dates from whenPrincess Yamatohime,

daughter of Emperor Suinin,

was searching for a finalresting place for the sacred

mirror. When she reached Ise,

she heard the voice of

Amaterasu Omikami, saying,"This is a good place, and I

would like to stay here."

Every twenty years thebuildings at Ise are torn down
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SHRINE AT ISE, JAPAN

Shinto ("the way of the gods") is Japan's traditional religion.

Followers of Shintoism worship the natural world - animals,plants, stones and places of great beauty. The ancestors and

heroes of old are also sacred. Japan has around 80,000

Shinto shrines, the chief one being the Grand Shrine at Ise.

Ise Grand Shrine, with its two-thousand year history, is

Japan's most important Shinto shrine and serves as the center

of all shrines nationwide. Situated near the banks of the

Isuzu River, the shrine is surrounded by 800-year-old Ise

Grand Shrine cedars.

Ise Grand Shrine consists of two groups of buildings: Geku

(outer) and Naiku (Inner). The Inner is more important as it

honours and is considered to be the abode ofAmaterasu,

the sun goddess - the deity the emperor was considered to

be descended from. This shrine is still considered to have

close connections with the Royal Family. The shrine is

customarily torn down every 20 years to be replaced on an

adjacent lot by an identical set. The current set is the 220th.

The shrine is assembled completely without nails.

The present buildings reproduce the temple first

ceremoniously rebuilt in 692 CE by Empress Jito. The first

temple had been built by her husband Emperor Temmu

(678-686), the first Mikado to rule over a united Japan.
http://ias.berkeley.edu/orias/visuals/japan_visuals/shintoC.HTM#William%20Alex.

ise shrine

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