Ise shrine
Ise Shrine is one of the biggest shrines in Japan. I live in Misono village, right next to Ise City and I often visit the holy place.
When I was a child, I joined a jingu-ceremony called Shikinen-sengu. It is held every twenty years when the shrine is re-built from the ground up. People who can join the ceremony live in special areas around Ise City and serve God. In Shikinen-sengu, they carry many white stones called shiraisi with a big carriage and spread them around the new building.
I don’t live in that area, but my grandparents’ house is there, so I was allowed to join as a member of their family. We carried the stones a long way on foot, pulling a rope that was tied to the big carriage. When we got to the shrine, the group leader handed a white stone to each person. Each of us put it around the new building. It was so hot and I was exhausted, but it is a memory I cherish.
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Shiraishi or white stones are the cobbles of the Miya River, which is the second clearest river in Japan. When I was small, I also attended that ceremony. I don’t remember the ceremony well, but I do remember the event in which I gathered white stones at the riverside for Shikinen-sengu. I live in Ise City, so I was allowed to join the series of events.
Are these white stones the ones that cover the ground between the sanctuary where the goddess is enshrined and the gate that bars visitors from getting any closer?
You’re right, but I’m not sure. I’ll ask someone who attended the ceremony.
How can I see the animation? When I click the link in the entry, I get a message ‘Click here to get the plugin’.
Ah — you’re probably using Mozilla now.
A plugin is an “extension” to an existing piece of software, usually created by somebody other than the creator of the original software, which adds extra functionality to the software when you “plug it in”.
Flash is a piece of software that allows artists to create animations. The manufacturer sells the software to the artists but makes a browser plugin available for everyone to download at no cost. Unless your browser has this plugin, you can’t view Flash animations.
Microsoft may have a licensing agreement with the Flash manufacturer that allows them to “bundle” the Flash plugin with their browser, so that when you buy the Windows operating system or download a new version of Internet Explorer, the Flash plugin is already there.
Since Mozilla is an open source product, it cannot distribute commercial, “proprietary” software with a regular download — for that reason, it comes without the Flash plugin.
A Mozilla version of the Flash plugin does exist, however. Simply click on the “Download the plugin” message that shows when you’ve arrived on a page that contains a Flash animation, or download it from the manufacturer.
Bob Ferguson has a whole album of photos taken at Ise Grand Shrine.
(More photos from across Japan are here.)
Ruedi,
In the last session, I told you that I’ve found the other page about Ise-shrine. But, that is the one you suggested: that is, the original page which has a link to the page I posted. I’m sorry.
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Ise Grand Shrine is very impressive. It strikes me as more peaceful than most Shinto shrines since they don’t paint it the usual mind-bending vermillion and, instead, simply leave the building materials in their natural state. The fact that they pull all structures down every twenty years and build them up again, thus passing the workmanship from one generation to the next, also testifies to the deep respect the Japanese traditionally have for craft.
I wish the Flash animation you linked testified to anything other than a very disturbing taste for cutesiness. Coming from somebody with a violent allergy to big-eyed manga characters, you may have to take my negative reaction with a grain of salt, but even so — ugh! What were they thinking when they made that thing? In addition to the low-bandwidth version you linked, the same site sports a broadband version in which the characters actually speak, and I don’t like that one any better.
Baaaad.