Ise Grand Shrine

The most important shrine in Shinto, and the thing to understand before arriving is that the buildings are always new. Every twenty years the main sanctuaries are rebuilt from scratch on the empty plot beside them, the deity is moved across, and the old buildings are dismantled. The 62nd rebuilding was completed in 2013; the 63rd is due in 2033. It costs a fortune, uses around 10,000 hinoki cypress trunks, and its real purpose is to carry the carpentry techniques forward: no drawings survive from the eighth century, only craftsmen who have done it once and will teach the next set.

There are two main complexes, six kilometres apart. Geku enshrines Toyouke, the deity of food and industry; Naiku enshrines Amaterasu, the sun goddess and ancestor of the imperial line. Tradition says visit Geku first. Together with 123 smaller shrines they make up Ise Jingu.

At Naiku you cross the Uji bridge, rebuilt on the same twenty-year cycle, and follow a broad gravel path along the Isuzu river, where the traditional purification is to wash your hands in the river itself rather than at a basin.

You will not see much of the sanctuary. A white cloth hangs across the gate, four fences stand between you and the building, and photography stops at the bottom of the steps. The point is not the view. One of the three imperial regalia, the sacred mirror, is said to be inside.

Entry is free and the shrines open at five in the morning all year, which is the best hour to be there. Outside Naiku, Okage Yokocho is a reconstructed Edo street full of food; eat akafuku, red bean mochi that has been sold here since 1707.