Ise Jingu Shrine — a time for renewal
The end of the year is traditionally a time of review and new prospects, a time to weave memories of the past with plans for the future to form the narrative cloth of a coherent identity.In Japan, where old buildings seem as disposable as yesterday's Christmas giftwrapping, architecture can often seem to suffer amnesia. For this last On: Architecture column of the year, we pick up projects from 2013 linking past and present, "renovating" the old into the new.
First up is Ise Jingu Shikinen Sengu, the periodic rebuilding every 20 years of the Ise Jingu Shrine in Mie Prefecture — the paradigm example of renewal drawn from the Japanese spiritual and architectural tradition. This year saw the completion of the 62nd iteration of the rebuilding ceremony, which dates back to the seventh century.
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