The Invisible Sun

Before we begin, one just for Naruto fans.

Itachi's cunning plan of invading Konoha using a newly-designed mobile hideout was sadly foiled by his complete lack of naming sense.

Yesterday was the day of my visit to Ise Jingu, Japan's holiest and most important shrine. It has been rebuilt from scratch as a perfect replica every 20 years for over a thousand years. It's divided into two, an inner shrine housing Amaterasu, goddess of the Sun, supreme divinity and patroness/progenitor of the imperial line, and a nearly identical outer shrine housing Toyouke, god of food, clothing and shelter who is also responsible for offering food up to Amaterasu (so daily food offerings are made to him first). Overall, it was pretty underwhelming, primarily because both shrines are considered way too holy to be seen by all but a few select priests, so all we get to see are the outer, least significant buildings plus an exciting variety of fences.

After trekking through the rather drab Ise City, I came to the outer shrine and experienced all this for myself.

The torii leading to Geku or the outer shrine. Another that's "oldest of its type". Note the holy sakaki branches attached to it - these are renewed every ten days.

About 50% of everything in the area is surrounded by white-marked ropes indicating an object inhabited by a kami. One wonders if holiness spreads by proximity, like spiritual power in the Bleach manga/anime.

Not everyone looks up, but frankly the man-made glories of the shrine are dwarfed by those of the forest it is set within.

As I say. The best thing about Ise is that even if you can't see the shrine, there's some remarkable scenery.

The hills of Ise, sadly inaccessible to travellers.

Frankly, I was feeling in a surprisingly sceptical mood that day, and consider the principle of "too holy to see" pretty dubious. I mean, either an object/location's holiness is in the eye of the beholder, or it isn't. If it isn't, then surely no amount of impure gazes could in the least diminish Amaterasu's glory. If it is, then what are they bothering to protect so hard? However impure the gaze of one pilgrim, it will not harm another's connection with the divinity. I know, I know, that's too logical for your typical priesthood. But I'd think masters of Shinto of all faiths would get that holiness can be and is found everywhere, rather than being something you lock up out of harm's way. (and don't even get me started on the contradiction of trying to hide the Sun Goddess, especially since Japanese myth has precedent for how it's a bad idea)

Now I think of it, maybe the shrine is off limits because the priests know there's nothing they can show believers that will even approximate Amaterasu's glory - the same way as the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan are never shown to ordinary people and may not actually exist.

At any rate, shrine-wise there was a certain amount of consolation in that various attendant gods have their own shrines on the premises, and these are small-scale replicas of the real thing (though they're one building each; I'm pretty sure more than that is concealed behind the fences).

Lesser shrine, tourist's eye-view.

Lesser shrine, photographer's eye view. The simple construction is somehow appealing, notably in a way that Kasuga Taisha's ancient architecture wasn't.

Oddly, it's actually not that hard to believe that a spirit dwells behind this gate. It has a certain eerie quality to it.

The holy giant spiders of Ise say hi. What? If so many random rocks around here are holy by proxy, what to say of a living creature that has inhabited the shrine from birth?

This stall on the shrine grounds sells many charms etc. (notably more expensive than any other shrine I've seen), but also these household worship-your-own-deity shrines. Such things are pretty standard in Japan (though neither of my homestay families has one). Higurashi no Naku Koro ni fans may note that some are referred to as "yashiro" - if one were to be very respectful, "o-yashiro sama".

At any rate, having been duly underwhelmed, I moved on to Naiku, the inner shrine, via a bus. However, before going in, I spied a street leading away which seemed filled with big souvenir shops and interesting pseudo-traditional things. Since I had one souvenir left to purchase (and a very hard one at that - it's tricky looking for "cute things" when you despise the very concept of an object made for pure cuteness), I veered in that general direction.

I did get my souvenir eventually, but before that, I learned something interesting upon inquiring of some shopkeepers why the place was full of toy owls. Apparently, there are no less than three different puns on the Japanese for "owl" which render it a lucky charm.

Explanatory sign of incredible usefulness - though given this stuff was all aimed at tourists, I'm surprised at the total lack of English.

As the above explains, "Fukurou" can be read as

a) Fu-ku-rou, "lack-of-hardship", which makes it a protective charm against suffering

b) Fuku-rou, "blessing-bright/cheerful", which makes it a charm to keep hold of luck. (see post comments)

c) Fuku-rou, "blessing-old-age", which makes it a charm for being happy as the years pass.

Having drawn upon the wisdom of the owl, I decided to go for lunch. Looking around, I found an udon place promising "Ise Udon". Since it sounded like something I might not be able to get elsewhere, and vegetarian to boot, I decided to go for it. Incidentally, I will forever and ever be grateful to the waitress there, the first person in Japan to treat me exactly right linguistically. I could see her thinking as she chose her words, and in the event she explained what Ise Udon was in simple Japanese which I completely understood without feeling patronised. If you don't get why this is a big deal, compare today's train station guard, who looked at my JR Pass and just repeated "JR no no no no no" at me in English, in spite of my attempts to question him in Japanese, until I realised on my own that I was at the subway entrance rather than the JR Line entrance, and worked out where I was meant to go based on hanging signs.

Ise Udon, characterised by very thick noodles and enough soy sauce to conflagrate a small elephant (yes, I know soy sauce doesn't burn, but when you have this much of it, it starts to bend the laws of physics). In the event, I actually didn't like the taste much.

Ah, well. It was an experience at any rate. I moved on to Naiku after thanking the waitress (she seemed happy about it).

The approach to Naiku, very scenic and generally prettier than this lame camerawork makes it look.

Chickens, the deer of Naiku. Seriously, why?

Chickens, plural view. So so many, though admittedly concentrated in a fairly limited area.

This little river has traditionally been a place for pilgrims to purify themselves before entering the shrine. I'm not sure how this meshes with all the "do not enter the river" signs. It's really shallow, by the way, and further downstream looks like a garbage-polluted river without the garbage.

Awesome cypress trees, still mocking human efforts at making something impressive.

Approach to Naiku proper. Photos may only be taken from the base of the staircase...

...but that's why the gods gave us zoom functions. Not that there's much to see either way.

Finally, a cool little bridge. I'm pretty sure it's another famous site of sorts, but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere in particular.

So yeah. I spent a day looking at shrines I couldn't see. I wonder what goes through the minds of pilgrims who travel long distances just to stand in front of a white curtain and a row of fences. Granted, true faith disregards physical obstacles to a connection with a divine, but that sort of begs the question of "why come here in the first place?" If any deity has a claim to omnipresence in relation to humans, surely it's the sun goddess and the god of food, clothing and shelter. Ah, well. I may just have to accept that I don't understand these people. Like Paulo Coelho says, "in order to follow his path, the warrior does not need to prove that someone else's path is wrong".

Small pond just outside the shrine, bonus shot A: the Koi of Kamouflage.

Bonus shot B: the Koi of Konspicuousness.

Bonus shot C: the Koi of Konflagration.