Rebuilding of the Ise Shrine
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Every 20 years, for 1200 years, the fences and main buildings of the Ise Shrine have been completely rebuilt. The shrine, which is the center of Shinto worship in Japan, is of major importance in Japanese history. It represents the continuity and renewal of Shinto, of the authority of the imperial house, and of the traditions underlying Japanese architecture. In a tradition where wood, rather than stone, was always the principal building material, such a form of renewal is the only way that the shrine compound could have survived into the twentieth century. But the renewal means many things and the Ise shrine can only be understood when it is seen as the center of a complex interaction among power, religion, and aesthetics. It can only be fully appreciated, however, as an instance of a perfect blend of materials, forms, and site created as a tribute to the power, serenity and beauty of nature. The term Ise refers to a large complex of shrines and smaller sanctuaries at various spots on the east coast of the Kii peninsula in Mie prefecture. The two principal shrine compounds are the Outer Shrine (or Geku) which was established for Toyouke Okami, "Great Spirit of Food Abundance," in 478, and the Inner Shrine (or Naiku) consecrated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. The Outer Shrine is near the coast and the Naiku is approximately three miles inland. The two shrines were unconnected at first, but in the ninth century "they were incorporated into a unified institution" (Co
. . .
ength," had particular significance (Coaldrake 31). The buildings were necessary to keep rodents and moisture away from the vital food stores and it is not surprising that the storehouses became the focus of important seasonal festivals. From there it was only "a short step from transferring the belief in the beneficence of the gods to the specific buildings which housed the grain of life" (Coaldrake 33). The evidence now suggests that the use of such buildings in a sacred context was quite widespread in early Japan. And the ritual practices at Ise seem to have been followed in other areas as well. Other sites have been discovered at which stone pebbles such as those at Ise were used to cover the sacred area. And a site in Nara prefecture was found to have almost perfect "correlation in structure, style and site layout" with those aspects of Ise (Coaldrake 33).
The Ise site is, therefore, distinguished largely because of the tradition of rebuilding that has served to maintain its original form, with very few modifications, to the present day, and by its central position in the history of the imperial house. There are no examples of pre-Buddhist (i.e., prior to the mid-fifth century AD) architecture in Japan. The Ise Shri
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ise Shrine, Outer Shrine, Priest Saigyo, Inner Outer, Inner Shrine, AD Stanley-Baker, Various Shinto, Outer Shrines', Ise Emperor, Meiji Era, japanese architecture, inner shrine, ise shrine, shinto shrines, imperial house, inner outer, shrine buildings, drexler 32, stanley-baker 29, prototype japanese architecture, buildings fences, ise prototype japanese, forms japanese architecture, inner outer shrines, japanese architecture cambridge,
Approximate Word count = 3204
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
