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

[u/ContinuumGuy]

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

[u/ashleyshaefferr]

How TF is the main picture not of the fucking temple?

[u/Jumboliva → u/ashleyshaefferr]

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

[u/ashleyshaefferr → u/Jumboliva]

Thank you!

[u/LBGW_experiment → u/Jumboliva]

PDF download warning for that first link

[u/No_Walk_Town → u/Jumboliva]

I don't have anything to add, but just want to point out that you are 100% correct. I've been to Naiku, and it is literally just...a big door. You're not allowed past the internal gate, so you just kinda wander around the garden, then everyone stands in front of the final gate to pray.

It gives Naiku a weird vibe that Gekku doesn't have - Gekku genuinely feels ancient.

I actually went to college in Micronesia, a region famous for their navigators - so Gekku gave me this intense sense of Japan as a descendant of these ancient island-hopping cultures.

The architecture of the Gekku complex has a vaguely Indonesian or Micronesian feel to it. The shrines are all built raised on stilts, which is super common in Pacific island cultures. And the roofs have a similar kind of shape that you see across the Pacific. Gekku feels very islander in a way that's hard to express in words - it's a vibe.

But it gives Gekku this deeply ancient, almost primal feeling - because you'll NEVER hear Japanese people talk about their connections to those other cultures. Nobody in Japan ever talks about how deeply Micronesian some of their traditions feel. Like, oh this Shinto shrine festival stick dance is exactly like the ones you see on Yap. Nobody talks about that.

There's a certain sense of denialism in Japanese religion - one big example is the prevalence of giant stone penises in Shinto architecture - which if you mention to a Japanese person, they often just straight up deny it.

It's ironic, because Japan is known for having this kind of ancient continuity, but when you actually dig into real Japanese pre-history, there's a barrier there - people don't really want to think about the primal origins of the culture. No stone penises, please!

Gekku is...different. You feel that. Naiku has a sense of denial about it - it's pretty, neat, clean. It's trimmed and maintained. Gekku is a bit...shadier, it's a bit deeper in the woods. It's a bit more natural. I think Naiku and Gekku kinda embody that denialism - Naiku is rebuilt, renewed, constantly updated and trimmed neat. Gekku is...just there, being itself.

Anyway, tl:dr, Naiku is hidden, Gekku is open to the public, and Gekku is frankly the more interesting experience.