Shikinen Sengu - Periodic Renewal
The practice of periodically rebuilding shrines to maintain eternal youth.
Shikinen Sengu is the practice of completely rebuilding shrine structures at regular intervals. At Ise, this occurs every twenty years. This renewal maintains the shrine's eternal purity, transmits building skills, and symbolizes the perpetual freshness of kami presence.
Through shikinen sengu, the eternal remains ever new, the ancient perpetually fresh.
Periodic renewal uniquely expresses the Shinto understanding of sacred time.
Ise Jingu practices
Written about in
- What Shinto says about cycles and renewal
At Ise the shrine buildings are rebuilt completely every twenty years. The result is a structure that is both very old and never old, and the building skills pass on with it.
- What Shinto says about starting again after a fall
At Ise the shrine is pulled down and rebuilt every twenty years. The renewal is not a response to damage — it is on the calendar, which is this tradition's strongest claim that starting again is a normal operation and not a confession.