I want to say thanks to the JR passes my friend and I obtained. It has allowed us to travel to far off places conveniently while showing us a side of Japan you normally do not see or is portrayed very often in popular depiction. The towns and suburbs surrounded by the majestic landscape paints a picture of a serene life for inhabitants even if it isn’t the reality.
Our destination yesterday was the Ise Grand Shrine in Mie prefecture. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there from Kyoto. For the convenience of anyone with a JR pass reading this, there is a fee that has to be paid between certain stops as they are owned by a private rail company. It is only 510 yen = somewhere less than 5 bucks per person. We paid the first time, but coming back we didn’t pay anything strange enough.
Let’s backtrack a little a bit and talk about the Shrine itself and what it means to Japanese culture. Based on the little pamphlet I received, the two shrines(in reality 125 separate shrines)have been around for about 1500–2000 years. One named 外宮(Geku) and the other named 内宮(Naiku). Geku is a five minute walk from the station we got off from. Naiku is about a 45 min walk northeast from Geku. Obviously, Geku was first.
To start, Geku’s enshrined deity goes by the name of Toyou’ke no Omikami. According to the pamphlet, she provides the people with abundant harvests and is generally known as the guardian of well-being. Like any Shinto Shrine, the entrance is marked by a 鳥居(torii). Yet, they were different from the ones I’ve seen so far during my stay here.
You can see in the picture the difference between the reddish orange painted ones and this. I feel like the red probably came some time after though why I’m not sure. Walking inside, I did not take pictures of the places of prayers because I felt it inappropriate. Suffice to say, that there are various shrines in Geku and Naiku where Japanese pray to gods with power over some domain. For example, Tsuchi-no-miya, Kaze-no-miya, and Taka-no-miya who provide protection for Geku, hold power over wind and have influence over the climate, and one to Toyo’uke as well(another form).
The main sanctuary where Toyou’ke is enshrined had a place of prayer, but behind that a hall and grounds for where rituals took place. I got to see one where an older man and a priest bowed several times in front of the main hall at different points near the entrance to this main hall separated by a barring fence that said photographs weren’t allowed. As we made our way out of the shrine and towards the bus stop to Naiku, we came upon a pond on our right with a museum which presumably explained Shinto features and whatnot. The pond was pretty nice even if the weather wasn’t really in tune with the view.
It took about 15 mins via bus to Naiku and it cost 430 yen = about 4.00 bucks. If you have an IC card like Suica or ICOCA, you can use that to pay the tab as well. While Geku’s location is quite inconspicuous, Naiku’s is really obvious with the amount of tourists who were mostly Japanese. I was surprised at how there were very few foreign tourists besides ourselves. Moving on, Naiku only has one entrance unlike Geku. It’s a large bridge that crosses over the 五十鈴川(Isuzugawa River). The pamphlet describes the bridge named 宇治橋(Ujibashi) as the separation between our world and the sacred realm.
The deity enshrined in Naiku is probably the most important figure in Shinto, Amaterasu. Amaterasu is the sun god born from Izanagi’s purification after visiting his wife Izanami in the underworld. When he came back from the underworld after almost being killed by Izanami(his wife), he proceeded to cleanse himself in a body of water nearby the entrance. When he washed his left eye, he produced Amaterasu. Cleansing and purification are really important themes in Shintoism and this shows a lot in their mythology.
However, the more famous story associated with Amaterasu is when she hid herself in a cave after her brother Susanoo went on a rampage which resulted in her crops razed and one of her attendants killed by Susanoo himself. When this happened, she isolated herself in a cave and the light of the world disappeared. Her attendants brought her out by hanging a mirror in front of this cave tricking her into coming out. This exact mirror is supposedly enshrined in Ise and it forms part of the Imperial Regalia which Amaterasu gifted her grandson Ninigi no Mikoto whose eventual descendant would become the first emperor of Japan. From this descendant, the imperial family(the Yamato clan) traces their descent to Amaterasu.
As we walked through on our way to the main sanctuary, we found a rest house for pilgrims where free matcha tea is served and vending machines are available to the left of the main path. There’s also a shop selling miscellaneous trinkets and charms. As you keep moving forward this way, you come across something that every Shinto shrine usually has besides torii, a purification site. However, this one is more special in that there are two places where purification/cleansing can be performed. One of which is an actual stream that eventually feeds into the river in which people can purify themselves. The 手水社 (temizusha, ablution font) which is the one usually seen and the 御手洗場(mitarashi, site for ablution). The second was more interesting to me so we decided to check it out.
A lot of people purified themselves here and how they did so varied. Usually with the 手水社, it works by taking a ladle filling it with water and cleansing both hands. Once that is done, you take another scoop of water with the ladle and rinse your mouth while taking care not to take it directly from the ladle and then spit the water straight down. There are other variations that I have seen where people do it with just one scoop for example. At this site, people would douse their feet or step into the stream. They might simply cleanse their hands and face as well. We also got to see the beauty of the stream making its way into the river. It was pretty serene and beautiful. It only served to remind me of the connection of nature with sacred grounds here in Japan.
As we purified ourselves and headed towards the main sanctuary, you come across another bridge to the right and a prayer hall to your left. The shrine on the right is built for a kami that protects the river. The prayer hall is where people pray for public happiness. The pamphlet says that if people have a personal wish, they can dedicate a prayer via offering kagura(ceremonial music/dance). I did not see anyone perform that. Further up, there are two paths. One leading to the site of the previous sanctuary of Amaterasu, the other leads to where she is actually enshrined.
According to the pamphlet, a ritual called 式年遷宮(Shikinen Sengu) takes place every twenty years in which a new divine palace is constructed with the same dimensions at a site next to the main one. The sacred apparel, furnishings, and treasures placed in the old site are also remade for the new. Then, the mirror I talked about earlier is moved to the new sanctuary by the Jingu priests. This happens at any other Jingu shrines. Jingu shrines are shrines connected to the imperial family which I probably should have explained earlier. Seeing as I didn’t take a picture of the main sanctuary, I was allowed to take a picture outside the entrance of the previous one.
It was exactly like the one for Toyo’uke. A place for pilgrims to worship with an inner sanctum barred to everyone but the priests themselves. It was a pretty interesting experience and I felt the history of Japan through it. If you look at this picture, you see thatched roofs and architecture that resembles what possibly was back then. Inside, there are buildings with wood that are laced with gold(though only on the upper part). Since I’m very interested in Japanese mythology too, it was nice to have been at the actual place where the mirror is supposedly enshrined. As always, if you want to take a look at the full experience via my photographs, the flickr link is included.
Ise Shrine
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