The wooden shrine at Ise, in Mie
prefecture, Japan, the central site of the Shinto religion and an important
focus for Japanese nationalism and dynastic authority, has been constantly
rebuilt since the seventh century. Although there have been lapses in its long
history, the preferred practice is for a ritual rebuilding every twenty years.
Beside the existing shrine, a space is left
empty to provide a site for the new building. The old building is then taken
down to leave an empty space in turn. Ise shrine thus continually alternates
between these two spaces in an existential flicker-effect or instability of
identity.
Unlike iconic Western buildings such as the
pyramids or the Parthenon, which are massively material and enduring, Ise’s
lighter structure summons an energy that must be constantly renewed in ritual
practice. The gods are invited to take up a residence which is understood to be
temporary, a flow of energy or power. While Western edifices are patched up or
stand until they crumble, Ise’s ancient architecture is forever new, immediate
and functional.
It is essential to the rebuilding process
that no change, development or innovation is introduced into the fabric of the
building. Each rebuilding imagines an origin to which it returns in the
timeless acts of the ritual. Although small differences must occur over the
centuries, the intention is always to return to the same.
You are neither there nor here. Like the
vacant space beside the shrine which, far from being a pure negation, offers
the possibility of the building’s renewal, a sense of identity must be
constantly recovered from emptiness and repositioned in a vision of the same.
Practice is not towards some final performance but a life long checking and
affirming.
see “Japan-ness in Architecture”, Arata Isozaki, MIT Press 2011
photographs Eiji Watanabe