Ise Jinja

Since 1965 every Japanese prime minister has been visiting the Ise Jinja. Why?

There has been no Chinese or other outcry because no one is buried (to my knowledge) at Ise Jinja. 

Why is Ise Jinja so important?

First a digression.  There are only three ways to pass on information through history.

1. Create a ceremony that is repeated annually. Think of Passover, Easter, July 4th and Christmas.

2. Build a durable object.  Think of a pyramid, a statue and the Parthenon.

3. Create a combination of 1 and 2.  The only example is Ise Jinja.

Ise Jinja is near the Pacific Ocean about one third of the way from Kyoto to Tokyo. It is a large forest with a river, there are two elevated spaces, one has a temple on it.  The other identical adjacent space is empty.  Every 20 years a brand new temple is built on the empty space.  It take 8 years to build the new temple, so work begins on the 12th year.  Most of the wood is 200 years old so the whole process is continuous and long term using roughly 12,000 workers and administrators who are part of the Imperial household.

Ise Jinja is over 1,600 years old; it is surround by a forest and river filled with animals, birds and fish that are not afraid of humans.  The animals walk among the human visitors comfortably.

My guess is that Ise was a global center for awarding a global peace prize in an earlier global era(see yesterday's blog).  The current Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize is a farce and has nothing to do with the original function of Ise Jinja.

I'm glad Japanese prime minsters have made a ritual out of visiting Ise Jinja; it is a great and valuable practice to renew the importance of this site in the modern world.