“How do you feel about being the descendent of a god?” Chihiro Minato, the director of the film Building Eternity asks the senior priest of the Izumo Grand Shrine Yoshihiko Senge, as part of the fascinating insight into the world of rebuilding sacred buildings, or sengu, that is an essential aspect of the two most significant Shinto shrines, at Izumo and Ise. “Every human is a descendent of gods, and all people have the qualities of a god” comes the reply.
The December Third Thursday Lecture comprised four elements: a screening of the film Building Eternity, which contained extended interviews with senior priests involved in the once-in-sixty years sengu of the Izumo Grand Shrine, during which significant components of the buildings are replaced and renewed. The second was an illustrated talk by Professor Kikuko Hirafuji of Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, who placed Izumo in the context of world mythology, focusing on the relationship between myths and sacred architecture. The third was a commentary by Minister Kotaro Katsuki, Head of the Political Section at the Embassy of Japan to the UK, who explored the wider significance of generational renewal for the sustainability of Japanese businesses, and the role of reflections on the question of ‘what is death’ in shaping Japanese culture. This was followed by a lively discussion and Q&A session with the audience.
The film Building Eternity was produced by Professor Hirafuji as part of the ROLES project. ROLES is the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology Open Laboratory for Emergence Strategies, an interdisciplinary thinktank concerning religion, geopolitics, ideology, security and technology at the University of Tokyo. We were introduced to some interesting concepts, including: the distinction in Shinto between heavenly and earthly deities (embodied in the figures of Amaterasu and Okuninushi respectively); the notion of constructing eternity through linking materials with finite lifespans (wood, humans) in a chain of renewal and rebirth; the gradual weakening of the power of gods, analogous to the setting of the sun; and the need for perpetual renewal and rebirth. We learned how the senior priests saw a difference between the rear view of the shrine buildings, representing a constantly stirring life force in a state of creative chaos, perceived differently by everyone, and the view from the front of the shrine, which encapsulates the apparently fixed state of the cosmos, always seen in the same way.
Intertwined with all this were insights into the changing nature and role of fundraising in engaging wider Japanese society (some 300,000 individuals made donations to the last round of Izumo sengu), and the importance of sengu in ensuring the survival of craft traditions, including those involved in thatching the massive roofs of the shrine buildings with cypress (hinoki) bark. Modern-day craftsmen wanted to make sure that their work at least met the exacting standards of their forbears. The process of procuring the bark itself, peeling thin strips from the trees which would grow back within a decade, becomes a further metaphor for the cycle of sustainable renewal.
Professor Hirafuji built on some of the ideas set out in the film to offer some deeper insights into the relationship between cyclical rebuilding and renewal of the shrine buildings and the Shinto world view. Using examples from the ancient world including the ziggurats of Ur (after which Denys Lasdun’s iconic student accommodation at the University of East Anglia are named), the labyrinth of Knossos and the minotaur which dwelt within, Norse and Indonesian myths, she persuasively argued for the entangled nature of scared architecture and mythology. She explained the deal struck between Amaterasu and Okuninushi, the transfer of land (kuniyuzuri), whereby Amaterasu gained precedence over of the earthly as well as the heavenly realm in exchange for a promise to continually renew Okuninushi’s great shrine of Izumo. The massive scale of the earliest shrine structures there was revealed during archaeological excavations in 2000-2001 when three huge pillars were discovered in situ, arguably supporting a shrine building some 90 metres in height. Professor Hirafuji pointed out that this was comparable not only to the spire of Norwich Cathedral, but also the Tower of Babel as described in the Bible. Intriguingly, recent archaeological finds suggest that twin stupa-pagodas some 100 metres in height originally stood in front of the main hall of the Tōdaiji temple in Nara: the drive to verticality and reaching for the heavens being a shared facet of many religious traditions.
Minister Katsuki broadened out the significance of generational renewal in Japanese culture and society. He offered some fascinating statistics: 40% of family-owned businesses in Japan had lasted over 100 years (compared with 25% in the USA). Appropriately enough given the theme of the preceding talk and firm, construction companies seemed particularly long-lived: the oldest recorded business in Japan, the Kongo-gumi, was apparently established in 568 (while in the UK the Royal Mint was set up in 886); amongst currently publicly- listed companies, Mitsui Kensetsu dates to 1586. The minister went on to consider how large-scale disasters, so prominent a feature in Japanese history, including fires and earthquakes, necessitated regular rebuilding and renewal. He closed with some reflections on mortality in Japanese literature, the notion of an awareness of being midway through life in the mid-thirties connecting the literature of Haruki Murakami, Ryōnusuke Akutagawa and Dante Alighieri.
The evening ended with a lively discussion with the audience, including around the future of these concepts of continuity and renewal in the face of the demographic changes which face Japan. A professor of religion and mythology sharing the stage with a diplomat responsible for political relations between Japan and the UK made for an unusual and stimulating juxtaposition. There was much here to reflect upon for a university in the middle of its own sexagenary rebuilding and renewal.
Dr Liliana Janik
Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge and Deputy Director of the Cambridge Heritage Centre