Foundations of traditions

🏯Every 20 years, locals tear down the Ise Jingu grand shrine, only TO REBUILD IT ANEW 🤔

📜They have been doing this for around 1,300 years. The process of rebuilding the wooden structure every couple decades helped to PRESERVE the original architect’s design against the otherwise eroding effects of time ⛩ There is also a belief of the DEATH and RENEWAL OF NATURE and the IMPERMANENCE OF ALL THINGS 🎋

In addition to reinvigorating spiritual and community bonds, the tradition KEEPS JAPANESE ARTISAN SKILLS ALIVE. It also involves the wish that Japanese TRADITIONAL CULTURE should be TRANSMITTED to the next generation 🎎. The renewal of the buildings and of the treasures has been conducted in the same traditional way ever since the first Shikinen Sengu had been performed. Scientific developments make manual technology obsolete in some fields. However, by performing the Shikinen Sengu, TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGIES are preserved, passing building techniques from one generation to the next 🎏

Oftentimes local people will take part in the ceremony several times throughout the course of their lives. Elderly person, who probably has experienced these events three or four times, says to young people: ‘I WILL LEAVE THESE DUTIES TO YOU NEXT TIME’ 👘

📌 Sengu ceremony also plays a role as a “device” to preserve the FOUNDATIONS OF TRADITIONS that contribute to HAPPINESS in people’s lives🥢