An exploration of how and why places become invested with

SACREDNESS and how the SACRED is embodied or made manifest through ART and ARCHITECTURE SHRINE AT ISE, JAPAN

Trees and stones have long been objects of deep devotion in Japan. Originally there were no shrine buildings; instead a tree, forest, or a large boulder or a mountain, festooned with ropes, would be the focus of worship. In Japan the mysterious forces of nature, called ke, were believed to permeate palpable matter and formless space (collectively called mono in Japanese) to create mononoke. Mononoke was seen to coalesce in trees and stones. Certain trees, especially the cryptomeria and the evergreen sakaki, were considered sacred for this reason. When one of these trees was felled and the wood used in the

construction of a shrine, this sacred quality was believed to follow it into the building. The sacred tree itself was literally and symbolically present in 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 giant cryptomeria trees next to the Isuzu River at the foot of Mount Kamiji and Mount Shimaji in the Mie Prefecture [see 1. Mie Prefecture] in southern Honshu, Japan. Crossing the Uji Bridge and passing through the large torii gate marking the entrance to the shrine, a long path leads to Ise Jingu (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 Toyouke Shrine (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 of Cereals Toyouke Omikami (Abundant Food Great Deity). Each shrine is composed of a number of buildings, including ancillary shrines, workshops, storehouses, etc. Each shrine has an inner precinct with a main sanctuary and two attendant shrines, as well as treasuries, fences, and gates. Both shrines are constructed of wood, and every twenty years both are totally rebuilt on an adjoining site. The empty site of the previous shrine (called the kodenchi) is strewn with large white pebbles. The only building on the empty site, which retains its sacredness for the intervening twenty years, is a small wooden shed or hut (oi-ya) inside of which is a post about seven feet high known as shin-no-mihashira (literally the august column of the heart, or more freely translated as sacred central post). The new shrine will be erected over and around this post which are the holiest and most mysterious objects in the Ise Shrine. They remain hidden at all times.

The oi-ya in the old shrine compound of the Naiku

[another photograph 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 with stones represents the form taken by Japanese places of worship in very ancient times; the shin-no-mihashira would thus be the survival of a symbolism 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 her husband Emperor Temmu (678-686), the first Mikado to rule over a united Japan. Emperor Temmu had established Ise as the principal cult shrine of Imperial Japan, but the site itself, and the cryptomeria trees that grew on it, were already sacred before then. The cryptomeria is a tree associated with Shinto shrines. The principal sacred plant of Shinto, however, is the sakaki (a shrub related to the tea bush). The shin-nomihashira is taken to represent a branch of the sakaki stuck upright in the ground. The chambers of the shrines are raised on timber piles which themselves are analogous to the central sacred post. The roof is not supported by the walls (although the rafters do rest on purlins), but the ridge beam is carried instead by two large columns at either end which embedded directly into the ground without any foundation.

Besides trees, at the Ise Shrine are many subsidiary shrines of rocks from the sea which are regarded as the abodes (iwakura or rock abodes) of deities. Bibliography

Kenzo Tange and Noboru Kawazoe, Ise: Prototype of Japanese Architecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1965. Yasutada Watanabe, Shinto Art: Ise and Izumo Shrines, New York: Weatherhill, 1974 (first published in Japanese, 1964). The Roots of Japanese Architecture, a photographic quest by Yukio Futagawa, with text and commentary by Teiji Itoh, New York: 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 of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan. Officially known simply as Jing or "The Shrine," Ise Jing is in fact a shrine complex composed 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

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, and protects over the Shrine. The current High Priest of the shrine is Kuni Kuniaki, son of the former Prince Kuni Asaakira (brother of the Empress Kojun). According to the official chronology, the shrines were originally constructed in the year 4 BC, but most historians date them from several hundred years later, with 690 AD widely considered the date when the shrines were first built in their current form. They are mentioned in the annals of the Kojiki and Nihonshoki (dating from 712 and 720, respectively). The old shrines are dismantled and new ones built to exacting specifications 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 the thatched 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 Park and has numerous other holy and historic sites including the 'wedded rocks' Meoto Iwa, and the Saiku (the site of the Heian period imperial residence

ISE: THE HOLIEST SHRINE According to Japanese popular belief, the Ise Shrine complex is the holiest of Japan. It is located in Ise City in the Mie Prefecture on the South East coast. The shrine is composed of two similar complexes. The earliest complex, said to date from the third century, is called the Naiku, or Inner Shrine. It is dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami. The second complex, the Geku, or Outer Shrine, is about six kilometers (3.7 miles) away. It is 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 and finishing comes entirely from Japanese white cypress, Hinoki. The main building of the Inner Shrine is designed in a special form of architectural style, called shimmei-zukuri. This style is prohibited for other shrines. It's simple rectangular 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 Imperial family. She is represented by the sacred mirror, one of the three objects (Imperial Regalia) symbolic of the divine authority of the imperial family. Legend holds that the inner shrine dates from when Princess Yamatohime, daughter of Emperor Suinin, was searching for a final resting 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 the buildings at Ise are torn down

(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)

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 of Amaterasu, 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.