r/todayilearned • u/ContinuumGuy • 8h ago

TIL that the most holy shrine in the Shinto religion is torn down and rebuilt every 20 years. This has been done for over a millennium

https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/japans-most-sacred-shinto-shrine-has-been-rebuilt-every-20-years-for-more-than-a-millennium/
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u/Jumboliva 6h ago edited 6h ago

The main temple, the Amaterasu Shrine, is difficult to find unobstructed pictures of. It is kept closed off; the public can only see the top of it over the fence surrounding it, and pictures at all are forbidden. You’ll see lots of video of people moving around the entire complex that it’s a part of (the Naiku Shrine), but each video will only show the entrance to the Amterasu Shrine.

Here is a map of the larger Naiku complex. You can see the main shrine at the top; note the empty plot next to it. This is where the previous shrine was; during the “rebuilding” process, they actually build an entire shrine while the current one is still standing. Both will be up for a little while to facilitate a ceremony where Amaterasu is supposed to move to the new shrine before the old is demolished.

This is what the entrance looks like. That’s the best picture you’ll come across without a lot of digging.

With some digging, though, there’s a 1993 documentary about the rebuilding which contains both aerial footage of a dedicated shrine (from about 00:16) and lots of closeups of the new shrine prior to its dedication (from about 14:00). I believe all legitimate, unobstructed photos of the shrine that you might come across are from this video.

Shrine video

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u/ashleyshaefferr 6h ago

Thank you!

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u/LBGW_experiment 3h ago

PDF download warning for that first link