MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
第62回神宮式年遷宮
The sixty-second Ise renewal cycle centred on 2013. New sanctuaries were built beside the existing ones, and sacred furnishings were remade. Separate transfers followed at the Inner and Outer Shrines. The work began years before the October ceremonies.
At both Ise’s Inner and Outer Shrines, equal-sized eastern and western plots stand beside one another. Shikinen sengū renews the buildings and sacred furnishings, then transfers the deity to the new sanctuary. The sixty-second cycle centred on 2013, with separate transfers at the two shrines.
Preparations for this cycle began with Yamaguchi-sai in May 2005. On 3 June, Misoma-hajime in Kiso marked the felling of hinoki cypress for sacred containers. Timber, buildings and furnishings required different stages of work; the 2013 transfer was the central rite within that programme.
Before the transfers, the 2013 summer Oshiraishi-mochi activities brought white stones collected from the Miyagawa River to the new shrine sites. River and land hauling preceded their placement at the Inner and Outer Shrines. These photographs show preparation and participation, rather than the October night rites.
The Inner Shrine’s transfer took place on 2 October; the Outer Shrine’s followed on 5 October. The sacred object was moved from the old sanctuary to the new one, with newly made furnishings offered there. At the Inner Shrine, the approach lamps were extinguished, leaving light from torches and candles. Priests, imperial messengers and invited representatives attended.
The furnishings renewed for sengū include divine clothing and associated articles, together with weaving tools, weapons, horse equipment, musical instruments, writing equipment and everyday utensils. Making these objects forms part of the renewal alongside construction.
Ise Jingū, the shrine institution, describes repeated construction as a means of transmitting Shinmei building techniques and the skills used for furnishings. Its account also distinguishes this effect from the original reason for choosing twenty years: early texts prescribe the interval but do not explain why it was chosen.
Jingū dates the first Inner Shrine renewal to 690 and the Outer Shrine renewal to 692. The sixty-second cycle belongs to that long history of remaking. Its buildings represent renewed construction rather than one set of ancient timbers preserved throughout the period.
Difficulty raising funds in the late Muromachi period interrupted renewal for roughly 120 years. Fundraising by Seijun and Shūyō of Keikōin, known for their work to revive sengū, with support from Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, helped revive it. The Tokugawa government later assisted construction.
Sengū was organized as a state undertaking in the Meiji period. The fifty-ninth renewal in 1953 moved away from state funding towards private contributions. The 2013 cycle thus continued making practices within a funding and organizational setting that had changed.
No. The Inner Shrine’s was on 2 October 2013 and the Outer Shrine’s on 5 October.
No. They show summer preparation: collecting, hauling and offering stones.
Sacred clothing and furnishings, including tools and musical instruments.
No. Jingū says early texts prescribe the interval without giving its reason.
No. There was an interruption of roughly 120 years in the late medieval period.
Funding moved away from the state towards private contributions.
