ISE, Japan — Lanterns and flaming torches emerge from the darkness as a robed priestess walks below centuries-old pine trees. Rows of solemn priests follow her up a long stone staircase, carrying a cedar-wood box of purified offerings -- fish, rice, vegetables.
Beyond the wooden gate at the starlit summit lies Japan's most sacred Shinto shrine, the inner sanctum of the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, who legend says founded the world's oldest surviving imperial line thousands of years ago.
Soon, the stewards of the Grand Shrine of Ise, or Jingu, will begin constructing replicas of these buildings, then transfer the deities to the new sites and do what seems unthinkable: tear down the old ones.
Destroying some of the country's most cherished religious monuments sounds like madness, but the removal and rebuilding of Jingu -- performed every two decades -- is a ritual of purification and renewal that stretches back 1,300 years and forms the heart of Shinto.
"Through the rebuilding, ancient Japanese tradition is being preserved for eternity. You can call Jingu a time capsule we have inherited," said Yoshihisa Ishigaki, a priest showing visitors the plot where one of the new shrines will be built.
"If you look at this shrine, you'll see what Japan is, who the Japanese are," he said.
That's a bold claim -- and one often made by Shinto proponents.
Lacking dogma or overarching principles, Shinto is based on ancient rites associated with beseeching the gods -- about 8,000 of them -- for bountiful harvests, prosperity and good health. The creed sees natural objects such as trees or mountains as spiritual beings, and its flexibility has allowed generations of Japanese to claim both Shintoism and Buddhism as their religions.
Shinto, however, also has its dark side. It is closely identified with the emperor as its head priest, and modernizers in the 1800s seeking to unify spiritual and political power made Shinto the state religion, setting the stage for emperor-worship, jingoism and concepts of racial purity that fueled Japanese militarism in the first half of the 20th century.
Shinto was split from the state after World War II and the emperor renounced his divinity. But the Shinto elite, struggling to maintain relevance in a modern, secular state, still loudly declares the religion the legitimate guardian of Japanese native identity, pointing to the millions who crowd shrines on New Year and other auspicious days.
