Ise Shrine (1)
At the 2016 Seven Advanced Countries Summit Conference involving the U.S.A, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, EU and Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited leaders from these countries, one of whom was the former President of the U.S.A Barack Obama, to Ise Shrine. Because many foreign news people followed them and saw Ise Shrine, some reports about Ise Shrine might have been aired to the world. This time I would like to write about Ise Shrine, which is the most sacred Japanese shrine, of course it is my challenge to refer to it.
It’s good for me to be around Ise Shrine every once in a while. Ise Shrine is a good place to visit, but if you want to get lighthearted enjoyments from traveling in Japan, what you can catch over here would be limited I suppose, I recommend other joyful places to visit. For Japanese people as well, and me too, Ise Shrine is an extraordinary place, it isn’t easy to acquire something good by only seeing it. On the contrary if you want to know something better and deeper as Japan, Ise Shrine must be the best place to give you a lot of hints about the fundamentals of Japanese culture.
Practically speaking about Ise Shrine, there are the Uji Bridge for the entrance, approaching roads, small wooden houses, woods, the Isuzu River and priests only. Compared with many famous duomos or cathedrals of Christianity in Europe which have marvelously beautiful architecture, it must be said that Ise Shrine is very simple and brief. What is the difference between them? A duomo architecture like Milano Duomo shows the glory with grace of Christianity, and it includes the method of teaching people, I think. However Ise Shrine doesn’t teach the theory of Japanese gods. It is strange and incomprehensible for foreigners to hear that, then I will talk about Shinto, which is the indigenous faith of the ancient Japanese and which had formed the style of Ise Shrine.
Shinto
◯the primitive praying to deities.
When the ancient Japanese people sensed a wonderful strangeness in a characteristic rock, a cape or a mountain at every turn in Japan, they believed it as a deity, a “Kami”. They feared the Kami, so they purified the area around the Kami and they prohibited entering in there. It was primitive Shinto. In a simple word Shinto is the attitude towards Kami.
-You can look at some flat squire-shaped places purified with a lot of white small stones and enclosed by wooden walls or ropes with cut pieces of paper. These are the places where Kami comes.
◯Like clean water
Primitive Shinto is like clean water. It doesn’t need the doctrine of faith. To purify the area around a corner is the only condition for Kami to exist over here. Moreover wherever people purify and pray with fear becomes the place where Kami comes and exists. A lot of Kami exists spontaneously in Japan. Ise Shrine enshrines Amaterasu-Omikami, who is the most famous Kami, but Amaterasu-Omikami is not the most supreme Kami.
-Ise Shrine is always clean and quiet. Wash your hands and mouth by clean water before praying at a shrine.
◯no word, no doctrine and no founder
There is no word, no doctrine or no founder in Shinto. There is no thoughts to want to get a realistic profit from Kami. Ancient people prayed and appreciated Kami only for safety and harvest.
-please pray for peace in the world or safety on your journey.
◯rituals
Ise Shrine has approximately 1500 rituals so as to worship Amaterasu-Omikami and other Kami in a year, but all the rituals aren’t disclosed.
-If you are lucky, you may be able to see a line of silent priests wearing ancient clothes with old black hats.
◯A shrine and sengu event every twenty years
Primarily a shrine ( a Kami’s house) wasn’t needed in ancient times. Temples of Buddhism influenced Shinto, therefore, shrines were built amid the purified places to pray. All the shrines in Ise Shrine have been changed and rebuilt every twenty years for the past fifteen centuries, it’s called “Sengu”, to move and rebuild a shrine. Japan has the thought that a life lives in a new thing.
-You can find flat land nearby a shrine. It is the next “sengu” place.
◯What is ancient Shinto?
What do you think after reading my blog above? Is Shinto a religion? It must be a religion on the stand-point to enshrine Kami, on the other hand, it can’t be a religion on the stand-point to have no doctrine and no founder. It might be difficult for foreigners, especially for the people who have a religion including doctrine, to understand Shinto.Boldly speaking I think Shinto seems to be called “ the frame” of behavior to sense something invisible, like energy, hope, courage, tolerance, peace, love and so on. My Australian friend who has visited Ise Shrine a lot of time said; “Ise Shrine always gives me tranquility.”
Let’s visit Ise Shrine
Now, let’s visit Ise Shrine. By paying attention you will be able to sense something good on bridges, in “kirameki”, glitter, on the clean water surface in the Isuzu River, in “Komorebi”, sunlight filtering through trees, on roads surrounded by woods, or in the clear air in front of a simple shrine. For people who keep their minds sound with appreciation Ise Shrine will be a marvelous place. Please try to see it through the frame of appreciating behavior with your clear mind like water. Seek and become aware of something good, because you can’t get it like love by pursuing it directly.
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