Ise Jingu and the Pyramid of Enabling Technologies

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Our buildings are often long lived things, capable of outlasting the society that produced them. The Egyptian Pyramids are still with us, thousands of years after the civilization that produced them collapsed. The shrine of Ise Jingu is an interesting contrast to this - the buildings there are always young, perpetually renewed by a thousand-year old cultural practice.<br>The Ise Jingu Grand Shrine sits in the forests of Ise-Shima National Park, in Japan’s Mie Prefecture. Ise Jingu (or simply Jingu) is a Shinto shrine dating back over 2000 years, and is one of the most important and sacred Shinto sites in Japan, standing at the top of all other shrines. More than 1500 rituals are held at Jingu every year, to pray for the Imperial family, a bountiful harvest, and a peaceful world.<br>The complex itself is spread over an area the size of Paris and consists of two large shrines, Naiku and Geku, and 123 smaller shrines. Naiku, the inner shrine, is dedicated to the worship of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and Geku, the outer shrine, is dedicated to Toyouke-Ōmikami, the god of agriculture, rice, and industry. Millions of pilgrims and tourists visit Jingu each year, but are strictly prevented from approaching Naiku and Geku, which are hidden behind large fences.<br>Rebuilding at Jingu<br>New (left) and old (right) Naiku shrines during the 60th sengu, 1973, via Bock 1974Jingu is famous for its tradition of periodic reconstruction, known as Shikinen sengu, or simply sengu. Every 20 years exact copies of Naiku, Geku, and 14 other shrines are built on empty sites next to the existing structures, after which the old structures are torn down. Altogether 65 buildings, bridges, fences, and other structures are rebuilt this way. This reconstruction at Jingu has taken place every 20 years (with some interruptions) for over 1300 years, since the first sengu took place around 690 AD.<br>In addition to the shrine structures, the rebuilding also includes creating exact copies of thousands of ceremonial treasures and artifacts, including:<br>60 ceremonial swords<br>Ceremonial shields, spears, bows, quivers, and thousands of arrows<br>31 mirrors<br>Thousands of yards of silk for curtains, drapes, quilts, bedding, and garments<br>Lacquered boxes with silver inlay<br>A miniature loom<br>A bronzed brazier<br>All of which are produced using traditional techniques. The rebuilding at Jingu thus means more than simply rebuilding the shrines - it means recreating a sizable fraction of a 7th-century economy.<br>Front and side view, Naiku. From Ise: Prototype of Japanese Architecture.The architecture of the shrines themselves is relatively simple. They consist of large timber logs, embedded into the ground, supporting an elevated post-and-beam frame. The frame is infilled with horizontal timber planks making up the walls and floors, and an elevated veranda surrounds the entire structure. Structures at Jingu are built using hinoki, a Japanese cypress prized for its workability, its golden sheen, and its resistance to decay, and are topped with thatched roofs made of reeds. This architectural style traces its roots to grain storehouses, which were raised off the ground to prevent rice from being damaged by flood and rot.<br>The first ceremonial trees being felled at the 61st sengu, 1993, via YouTube. Workers use the three-string cutting method, which controls the fall direction and prevents core tear-out.One part of the construction that isn’t simple is the joints, which consist of carefully carved mortise and tenon connections, along with a small number of iron fasteners. Japan is famous for this sort of wood joinery, and the skill to create them takes years to master.<br>Jingu’s rebuilding is designed to reproduce the existing structures as exactly as possible. Each rebuilding uses the same materials, the same construction techniques, and is built from the same set of drawings. This level of fidelity presents some unique construction challenges. Obtaining large enough timber posts, for instance, requires trees 300 to 500 years old. Originally these were taken from the forests surrounding Jingu, but supplies ran out in the 11th century; now they must be sourced from all over Japan. And though electric and power tools are allowed for some portions of the process, the work at the shrine itself must all be done using traditional techniques and hand tools. This is at least partially due to the exacting nature of the reproduction - the proper sheen on the planed logs, for instance, can apparently only be achieved via hand planing.<br>Logs being milled during the 61st sengu, 1993, via YouTube.After the new structures are built (and the fidelity of the copy has been confirmed), the previous buildings are then torn down, and any undecayed timber is saved for future rebuilding or repair.<br>The requirement to use traditional techniques, combined with the number of buildings rebuilt, means that rebuilding Jingu is less of a cultural...