TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION… …………………………………………………………………… 2
THE SHRINE RENEWAL PROCESS… ……………………………………………… 3
The Sengu Tradition… …………………………………………………………… 3
Sengu Ceremonies, Costumes, and Treasures… ……………………………… 5
Ise-Shima Culture and the Enshrinement of Kami at Jingu…………………… 6
Ceremonies and Offerings………………………………………………………… 8
The Main Sanctuaries and the Shrine Forest…………………………………… 9
WOMEN, SHRINE RENEWAL, AND JAPANESE LITERATURE… ………………… 11
The High Priestess of Jingu and Her Residence… …………………………… 11
Poetry, Saigyo, and Ise… ………………………………………………………… 13
The Haiku Master Basho and Ise………………………………………………… 15
Buddhist Nuns and the Revival of Sengu… …………………………………… 16
JINGU IN JAPANESE SOCIETY… …………………………………………………… 18
Ise as a “Shrine” Town… ………………………………………………………… 18
Modern Ise and Kogakkan University…………………………………………… 19
Participation in Sengu… ………………………………………………………… 21
Ise-Shima Shrines and the Coast… ……………………………………………… 22
Annual Festivals and Ceremonies in Ise-Shima………………………………… 26
INTRODUCTION
Every 20 years in Japan, an exact duplicate of Jingu, the country’s most sacred
shrine complex, is constructed. Then, the priests move the kami (deities) from
their old sanctuaries into the newly built ones. Finally, the old buildings are
completely dismantled. Known as “the regular moving of the deities” (shikinen
sengu), or simply sengu (pronounced “sen-goo”), this ritual of renewal has been
performed in the Ise area for more than 1,300 years. The aim of this book is
to take readers on a journey through history at Jingu in order to learn more
about this unique place that has come to form an important part of the modern
Japanese cultural identity.
This bilingual edition was a collaborative effort between one of the foremost
scholars of Shinto mythology and ritual, Professor Sakurai Haruo, and myself.
Fifteen researchers from Kogakkan University in Ise City originally wrote short
essays in Japanese as part of a series published in the Yomiuri Shimbun. These
were compiled and edited by Professor Sakurai for the first edition of this book
in 2014, and, when Ise-Shima was chosen to host the 2016 G-7 Summit, we
thought this would be a perfect opportunity to introduce this research to a
non-Japanese audience. For the English, we opted to re-arrange the material,
compress it, and add additional content when necessary in order to tailor it for
a non-specialist audience. Thus, it is less a direct “translation” or “version” of
the Japanese than a wholly new and expanded work.
I embarked on this project with a solid foundation of carefully researched
essays by my colleagues at Kogakkan University, and I benefitted immensely
from the sound advice of Professor Sakurai, who patiently discussed important
aspects of the content with me in great detail. I would like to thank Juergen
Melzer, Seiji Shirane, and Evan Young for reading through the manuscript and
offering valuable comments. The characters for Jingu ( 神 宮 ), “kami” on the
left and “miya” (shrine) on the right, which appear on the cover and between
the essays, were written by me with invaluable guidance from Mr. Fukuda Masaomi. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Mr. Horikawa Yukihiro, Ms. Ohashi Yuka, and Mr. Mori Masaki for their assistance with maps,
images, layout, and other aspects of the project. Of course, the responsibility
for any interpretation errors, inaccuracies, misjudgments, or poor calligraphy
is entirely mine.
Christopher M. Mayo
Ise City, Kogakkan University, January 2016
－2－
THE SHRINE RENEWAL PROCESS
The Sengu Tradition
At about 20-year intervals over the last 1,300 years, the Jingu shrine complex
in Mie Prefecture has undergone a complete renewal involving the reconstruction of buildings as well as the refashioning of ritual garb and decorative
items. This ancient process is called “the regular moving of the deities” (shikinen
sengu), or simply sengu. As the name suggests, the most important part of each
sengu is when priests perform a ceremony to relocate the objects of worship
into the new sanctuaries that have been built for them. In October 2013, the
62nd sengu reached its climax with the relocation of the kami (deities) at the Inner (Naiku; Kotai Jingu) and Outer (Geku; Toyouke Daijingu) Shrines in Ise City.
The sengu tradition is said to have begun in the year 690. At this time, the
most important event at Jingu was Kannamesai, or the “Festival of First Fruits
to the Kami,” which occurred in the autumn as well. The renewal of the shrines
was timed to coincide with
the festival at 20-year intervals, and the practice of
arranging the main rites of
the sengu to align with it
has continued to this day.
Because of how much
work needs to
Aerial photo taken in September 2013 of the main sanctuary
at the Inner Shrine with the new buildings on the left.
－3－
be completed, the modern sengu begins in the autumn and ends in the spring
about two years later.
The method of transferring the kami from one location to another is based
upon beliefs about where they reside. Japanese kami are believed to appear
before us in forms that include gigantic rocks or trees, waterfalls, or thick
forests. In addition, rather than treating items such as mirrors, swords, or the
distinctive comma-shaped stone beads called magatama as merely decorative
or military in nature, they are often considered to be things in which the kami
dwell. The mirror is the most sacred of all the objects of worship, and at Jingu,
the ones housing a kami are kept carefully hidden from sight. When the kami
are moved from their old sanctuaries to new ones, they travel as part of a sacred ceremony performed under the cover of darkness by Shinto priests.
The sengu can be broadly divided into three parts: 1) the gathering of materials; 2) the construction and adornment of the new buildings; and 3) the
transfer of the kami. The sanctuaries for the kami are the most visible result of
all this work. The architectural style employed is distinctive both for the deep
holes that are dug into the ground to hold massive wooden pillars and for the
thatched roofs. Highly skilled craftsmen are needed in order to construct the
buildings and the traditional artistic objects used to decorate their interiors
and exteriors. Great pains are taken to complete the sengu much as it has been
done for more than a millennium, and performance of the sengu helps to ensure that these skills are passed from one generation to the next. As a result of
these efforts, people from all over the world can enjoy the unique experience
of revisiting the ancient past while enjoying anew the opportunity to walk
through the pristine shrine grounds. Portion of a picture scroll depicting the 1929 sengu at the lnner Shrine.
－4－
Sengu Ceremonies, Costumes, and Treasures
Why is Jingu ritually dismantled and reconstructed on a regular basis? The
type of construction originally used for the buildings, with untreated wood put
directly into the ground, meant that they would have to be regularly rebuilt.
However, the desire to construct new sanctuaries for the kami probably also
had some connection with beliefs about maintaining purity. Beginning with the
first of the regularly occurring sengu in 690, 20-year intervals have been observed for the Jingu renewal, but no explanation for the duration was recorded
in early texts. Scholars have proposed some possible cultural and practical
motivations for it. First, it has been suggested that the 20-year time interval allows for the transmission of priesthood practices and construction techniques
from one generation to the next. Second, it falls within the expected lifetime
of the thatched roofs used for this type of building construction. Finally, the
number 20 may have had some special significance; Japan’s oldest poetry collection, the eighth-century Man’yoshu, for instance, is composed of 20 scrolls.
Performance of the sengu not only entails a renewal of the shrine structures, but also refashioning of items such as the sacred treasures and costumes. Among the treasures are the furnishings enshrined within the sanctuaries such as looms, arms and armor, harnesses, musical instruments, and
combs. The costumes include footwear, clothing, and accessories for the kami.
The finest craftsmen in each generation create the embroidery, lacquer ware,
metal work, and cloth needed to complete the ceremony. In the 62nd sengu,
there were a total of 1,576 different items classified into 714 types.
There are four major museums in Ise with collections related to Jingu and
the sengu. Some of the previously used items, having served their purpose, are
held at the Jingu History Museum (Jingu Chokokan). Next-door is the Jingu
－5－
日本語版執筆者（五十音順）
板井　正斉（いたい　まさなり）　教育開発センター准教授
『ケアとしての宗教』（共著）、『ささえあいの神道文化』
大島　信生（おおしま　のぶお）　文学部国文学科教授
『万葉集の表記と訓詁』、『日本書紀私見聞』（共著）
大平　和典（おおひら　かずのり）　研究開発推進センター准教授・学芸員
『久邇親王行実』（編著）、『皇學館大學百三十年史』
（共編著）
文学部国史学科教授･研究開発推進センター長・神道博物館長
岡野　友彦（おかの　ともひこ）　『北畠親房—大日本は神国なり—』、
『院政とは何だったか—「権門体制論」を見直す—』
岡田　芳幸（おかだ　よしゆき）　研究開発推進センター教授・学芸員
『別冊太陽　伊勢神宮』（共著）、『「伊勢参詣（宮）記」にみえる芸能』
木村　徳宏（きむら　のりひろ）　文学部神道学科助教
『神さまをまねく開運お掃除』
（共著）
『訓読註釈　儀式　践祚大嘗祭儀』（共著）、
齋藤　平（さいとう　たいら）　文学部国文学科教授・教育開発センター長
『伊勢志摩圏域を中心とした言語研究』、『「神風の」考』
櫻井　治男（さくらい　はるお）　文学部神道学科教授
『神道の多面的価値』、『日本人と神様』
田浦　雅徳（たうら　まさのり）　文学部国史学科教授 ･ 学生部長
『伊勢市史　第四巻　近代編』( 共著 )、
『続・現代史資料５海軍・加藤寛治日記』
（共編著）
髙倉　一紀（たかくら　かずのり）　文学部国文学科教授
『近世書籍文化考—国学の人々とその著述—』
、
『伊勢商人竹口家の研究』
多田　實道（ただ　じつどう）　文学部国史学科准教授
『紀伊半島東部 曹洞宗史研究』、『伊勢市史　第二巻　中世編』
（共著）
谷口　裕信（たにぐち　ひろのぶ）　文学部国史学科准教授
『伊勢市史　第四巻　近代編』（共著）、『伊勢の神宮と式年遷宮』
（共著）
深津　睦夫（ふかつ　むつお）　文学部国文学科教授・文学部長
『光厳天皇』、『中世勅撰和歌集史の構想』
松本　丘（まつもと　たかし）　文学部神道学科教授
『尚仁親王と栗山潜鋒』、『垂加神道の人々と日本書紀』
（故）山口　剛史（やまぐち　たけし）　研究開発推進センター助教
『神宮と日本文化』（共著）、『訓讀註釋　儀式　踐祚大嘗祭儀』
（共著）
英語版執筆者
文学部コミュニケーション学科准教授
Christopher M. Mayo（クリストファー・メイヨー）