Japan is home to tens of thousands of Shinto shrines, places devoted to the worship of the religion’s deities, known as “kami.” The most sacred of these sites, Ise Jingu, is considered the “soul of Japan” and lies nestled in the Japanese Alps. A collection of 125 shrines, the massive complex dates back over 2,000 years — and every two decades, it’s completely torn down and rebuilt.
The first documented reconstruction took place in 690. The latest began this year. These days, the undertaking is a $390 million job that requires recruiting the country’s most skilled woodworkers, carpenters, and craftspeople, the Associated Press reports. They will “pour their hearts” into the work, ensuring all 125 of the shrines are re-created using traditional techniques passed down from generation to generation.
A roughly nine-year endeavor, the reconstruction also involves removing and replacing the more than 1,500 garments and objects kept in the shrines. A number of festivals and ceremonies will accompany the painstaking process, which will culminate in a 2033 ritual, when the presiding deities will be transferred into the new shrines, per the outlet.
For some of those who feel a connection to the shrines, the cycle of rebuilding them represents the cyclical and ephemeral nature of life.
People in traditional dress pull wood along the Isuzu River to the inner shrine of Ise Jingu during the 62nd Okihiki-Gyoji ceremony on July 23, 2006
“Twenty years from now, the older generation — our grandfathers — will likely no longer be here. And those of us who are still young now will then see our grandchildren involved in the next [rebuilding],” Yosuke Kawanishi, a Shinto priest, told the AP. “After 20 years, the shrine we are building will have deteriorated quite a bit. But instead of thinking, ‘It’s a shame to tear down something we worked so hard to build,’ we think, ‘It’s been 20 years, so we want the deity to move into a beautiful, fresh, new shrine.’”
The process begins with the harvesting of sacred timber, which takes place under the supervision and blessing of priests. Cypresses are specifically planted for the construction, many of which outlive the humans who plant them. After asking the mountain deities for permission to fell the ancient trees, the workers then bow and pray together.
“It honors the continuity of a tree’s life and is a prayer for the regeneration of the forest,” explained local lumber company owner Soju Ikeda, who also manages a society for the preservation of traditional tree-felling skills. “You take a moment to appreciate that trees are living beings and engrave that feeling into your heart.”
Every year, over 7 million people travel to Ise Jingu, thousands of whom will take part in the ceremonies around the reconstruction.
“You can count with one hand the number of times you’ll witness something like this in your lifetime,” said first-time observer Yuto Nakase, “so I really felt it was a rare and precious sight.”
And despite the fact that the next cycle of taking down and rebuilding Ise Jingu will commence just about a decade after completion, as the priests bless the construction, workers shout: “A building for a thousand years! Ten thousand years! A million years and forever!”
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