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Ise Grand Shrine
Shinto's holiest shrine, rebuilt from fresh cypress every 20 years
Every 20 years, the holiest buildings in Shinto are rebuilt from scratch on a neighboring plot, in exactly the same form, from fresh Japanese cypress, and the old ones are taken down. The ritual, called the Shikinen Sengū, has been carried out for some 1,300 years, so the shrine is at once ancient and almost new. Ise Jingū, in Mie Prefecture, is the supreme shrine of Shinto. Its Inner Shrine is dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun goddess, from whom the imperial family traditionally traces its descent, and it is said to hold the Sacred Mirror, one of the three imperial regalia. For centuries ordinary Japanese have dreamed of making the journey at least once in a lifetime.
Ise Jingū is not one building but a network of 125 shrines, centered on two main sanctuaries about six kilometers apart: the Naikū, or Inner Shrine, and the Gekū, or Outer Shrine, dedicated to Toyouke, goddess of food and harvest. Visitors to the Naikū cross the wooden Uji Bridge over the clear Isuzu River and follow wide gravel paths through towering cedar forest, stopping to rinse their hands in the river. The main sanctuaries stand behind four rows of wooden fences. Their style, shinmei-zukuri, uses unpainted cypress, thick thatched roofs, raised floors, and crossed rafters projecting above the ridge, a form older than Buddhist influence. Visitors see only the roofs and fences, since the innermost precincts are reserved for priests and members of the imperial family.
Tradition dates the Inner Shrine to about 4 BCE, while historians generally place the shrines' origins between the third and fifth centuries CE. The rebuilding cycle began in the late seventh century, the 62nd took place in 2013, and the 63rd is already under way: its first rituals, including timber-cutting ceremonies, began in 2025, and the transfer of the deity to the new sanctuary is scheduled for October 2033. Mass pilgrimages in the Edo period drew millions, about five million in 1830 alone. Today the shrines received about 7.5 million worshippers in 2024, Japan's prime minister traditionally visits early each year, and a managed forest supplies part of the cypress the rebuilding needs.