Ise Shrine
Located in Mie Prefecture, the Grand Shrine of Ise (Ise Daijingu) is the most important shrine in Japan. It comprises two main shrine complexes, Naiku (the Inner Shrine), which consecrates Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, and Geku (the Outer Shrine), which enshrines Toyouke, an agricultural deity worshiped as parent to Amaterasu, together with more than 120 subordinate shrines. Naiku enshrines Yata-no-kagami (the Sacred Mirror), one of the three Imperial regalia. The two main shrines, built in the shinmei style, with plain wood and reed-thatched roofs, are ritually rebuilt every twenty years. Each building has an adjacent alternate site, where the new building is constructed with strict attention to detail. When completed, rites are held for the transfer of the deity to the new shrine. Following further rites, the shrine on the old site is disassembled and the materials distributed to affiliated shrines around the nation.
During the Tokugawa period (1600/1603–1868), branches of this shrine throughout Japan promoted pilgrimages to Ise, and large numbers of ordinary people, representing their local devotional groups, visited the shrine as part of a once-in-a-lifetime journey away from the farms and distant towns. In an average year, pilgrims numbered between 600,000 and 700,000; in the spontaneous mass pilgrimages of 1705 and 1830, however, they numbered between two and three million.
Further Reading
Bocking, Brian. (1995) A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press.
Holtom, D. C. (1965) The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto. Reprint ed. New York: Paragon.
Kanazaki Noritake. (2000) "Modern Tourism as it Developed in Japan since the Late Seventeenth Century." Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry 19, 5 (September/October): 27–31.
Picken, Stuart D. B. (1994) Essentials of Shinto: An Analytical Guide to Principal Teachings. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
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