Ise Grand Shrine

Ise Jingū, officially simply Jingū, the Shrine, is not a single building but a network of 125 shrines in and around the city of Ise on the Shima Peninsula. At its heart are two main shrines about 5 km apart: the Kōtaijingū or Inner Shrine (Naikū), dedicated to Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess and mythical ancestor of the imperial family, and the Toyouke Daijingū or Outer Shrine (Gekū), dedicated to Toyouke, the deity who provides Amaterasu's food.

The main sanctuaries are built in the yuiitsu shinmei-zukuri style, reserved for Ise: raised floors, thatched roofs, plain unpainted Japanese cypress, and crossed finials (chigi) and log weights (katsuogi) on the ridge, forms that go back to ancient raised granaries. Visitors worship at the outermost of four fences; the sanctuaries themselves are hidden from view.

The Inner Shrine is reached across the Uji Bridge over the Isuzu River through a forest of tall cedars, and pilgrims traditionally purify their hands in the river itself. The shrine forest covers a large part of the hills behind the shrines and supplies timber for the rebuilding.

According to the Nihon Shoki, Princess Yamatohime travelled for years in search of a permanent home for Amaterasu before settling on the banks of the Isuzu River during the reign of the legendary Emperor Suinin; historians date the establishment of the shrine in its present form to between the 3rd and 7th centuries. The Outer Shrine was founded, according to tradition, in the late 5th century. The first Shikinen Sengū, the ritual rebuilding of the sanctuaries on an adjacent site every 20 years, took place in 690. In the Edo period mass pilgrimages to Ise, known as okage mairi, brought millions of people to the shrines.

Ise is the spiritual centre of Shinto and holds a unique relationship to the imperial family: members of the family report important events to Amaterasu here, and the high priestess of the shrine is traditionally a woman of imperial descent. The Shikinen Sengū keeps the buildings perpetually new while preserving ancient forms exactly, and it passes on carpentry and craft techniques from one generation to the next; the old timbers are reused in shrines across Japan.

The most important annual ritual is the Kannamesai in October, when the first rice of the harvest is offered to Amaterasu. Oharai-machi and Okage Yokochō, the pilgrim streets in front of the Inner Shrine, preserve the atmosphere of the Edo-period pilgrimages, with specialities such as akafuku rice cakes and Ise udon.