For this week's featured building, we visit a Shinto shrine built to house the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. In an earlier post, we explored the wooded park that contains the shrine (see "An Oasis of Nature").
Emperor Meiji helped bring Japan into the modern world. When power transferred from the shogunate to him in the 1800s, Japan was isolated and behind technologically. When he died in 1912, the nation had become an important international power. The shrine was completed in 1920. Destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt soon afterward.
The tori (gate) that marks the symbolic entrance to the shrine is enormous. The people in the picture provide a good reference. Weathered wooden columns support the crosspieces. Passing underneath, it is hard not to feel a sense of awe.
Approaching the shrine compound, you find a covered fountain. This you use to ritually purify yourself before entering. On a wooden grate above the water are ladles. You dip one into the water, and use the contents to rinse your hands. Then another cupful to rinse your mouth. Now you're ready to enter.
I passed through another gateway, through a wooden screen. Next came the wall surrounding the shrine courtyard. I passed through a massive doorway on the east side of the enclosure. You don't have to do this; there is a wide open passageway to allow crowds through, but I wanted to see the door up close.
The large passageway I mentioned runs underneath rooftop supported by an elaborately decorated framework. These are made of wood. No nails are used; the structure is held up by the interlocking beams. The southern entrance (below) has an identical arrangement.
Once within the compound, visitors head across the courtyard to the main shrine building, and ascend the steps.
The stairs lead to covered place that looks into (but does not access) the courtyard within the main shrine. Here, worshippers line up to take a turn praying and giving an offering. One by one, they stand before an offering box, toss in a coin, and say a prayer (in silence). They conclude by clapping their hands once, and then make way for the next person.
The offering boxes are interesting. Wooden bars run across the top, forming a grate. Coins tossed on them may bounce, but eventually slide between, down into the box.
When I visited, I heard a loud drumming coming from the place of worship long before I approached it. I got to witness a repeat performance on it from close at hand. As you can imagine, the this drum can generate quite a bit of sound.
To one side of the courtyard, there is a large prayer rack. You can purchase a wooden tablet, write your prayer on it, and they will hang it on the rack for you. The rack is open to the breeze, so it can blow through the prayers. You can find prayers written in many languages here.
As I left the shrine, I met an older couple who had just arrived, and were finishing their washing. I turned to watch them enter the shrine together. I thought about my wife and me attending our own temple together. There is something compelling about the act of worship; I felt a kinship with other couple that ran across boundaries of faith and culture.
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