Ise Shrine in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, is the holiest site in Shinto: a network of 125 shrines anchored by Naiku, the inner shrine, and Geku, the outer shrine, about six kilometers apart. According to the Nihon Shoki, the princess Yamato-hime no Mikoto wandered for 20 years seeking a home for the sun goddess Amaterasu before hearing her voice at Ise. Geku was founded after Emperor Yuryaku dreamed that Amaterasu could not get food and asked for Toyouke, goddess of agriculture. The main buildings, hidden behind four layers of tamagaki fences and home to the sacred mirror, use the Yuitsu Shinmei-zukuri style, copied from Kofun period rice granaries, built of Japanese cypress with no nails. The current supreme priestess is Sayako Kuroda, daughter of retired Emperor Akihito.

Every 20 years the shrine is torn down and rebuilt on the neighboring plot in the Shikinen Sengu. The buildings finished in 2013 are the 62nd iteration, and the next rebuild is due in 2033. Preparation takes about 17 years, including sourcing roughly 10,000 hinoki logs and soaking them in ponds for years so they dry without cracking. The 2013 rebuild cost 57 billion yen, about 550 million US dollars, all from private donations, guided by tokowaka, the idea of eternity through constant renewal.

• Naiku’s chigi roof finials are cut flat horizontally, signaling a female deity
• The shin no mihashira, a sacred pole on the empty kodenchi plot, is enclosed by the new building so it is never seen
• Master carpenters called miya-daiku work only with hand tools and pass techniques from elders to apprentices
• In 1830 about five million people, roughly one in ten Japanese, made the okage mairi pilgrimage, a loophole in Edo period travel limits
• Locals drag logs in the Okihiki festival and place white stones around the sanctum in the Shiraishi-mochi ritual