Hope you've enjoyed your day, or that you enjoy your day, or that you are having a good day! For me, the day is over and I am very very tired today. Unfortunately, the rain didn't help neither.
So, if you have already figured out the hint I gave you yesterday, or if you just read today's tittle, then you will it's pretty clear that we went to the Outter Shrine or Ise, the Geku.
According to japanese history and today's classes, the Outter Shrine was built somewhere in the 5th century, five centuries after the Naiku. It is written that Amaterasu-Ômikami visited the Emperor Yuryaku in a dream, where she complained about food shortages in the Naiku. After hearing her call, the Emperor decided to bring the food Kami, Toyouke-no-Ômikami, from the northeast lands of the Yamato kingdom, into Ise. There, he built the Outter Shrine, a couple of miles away from the Inner Shrine, hoping to appease the Sun Kami. From that moment on, the Geku would forever be associated with the food offerings for Amaterasu-Ômikami.
At first, I must say I was really surprised by the Shrine's size. Since there's a strong relationship between the Geku and the Naiku, I tought they would have similarities in size. which they actually don't. The 10 minutes that a normal person takes, to go from the first Torii of the Naiku to the main Honden, are merely 4 minutes or less inside the Geku.
In the picture above, you can see the entrance to the area where the worship building (Honden) is, although we are not allowed to come closer to it, which follows the same rule as the Naiku; no photos/videos allowed. Beyond the Torii, the building isn't much different from the Naiku's, although it is possible to see further away.
According to the information given by the professor Sakurai Haruo, the pilgrims come to this Shrine before they reach the Naiku, while attending the Ise-mairi (pilgrimage to Ise). The statistics from that same pilgrimage say that the number of people who attend the Naiku are 2 times more, than the ones who go to the Geku. Which shows the importance level of one shrine, when compared to the other.
Nonetheless, this shrine remains one of the 2 most important shrines of Ise-Jingu, which also holds 2 little shrines for the Kami who protects the Geku grounds, Tsuchi-no-miya Shrine, and the Kami of the wind, Kaze-no-miya Shrine.
It might sound strange that one big shrine can also hold the house of 2 other Kami, which is a fact that I could never understand. The answer for this question, though, may lie in the Meiji Period (1868-1912), where a lot of shrines where destroyed and merged into single one. The fact that the Geku holds 2 little shrines inside, may suggest that those 2 Kami were very important for the people, in this land, before the Meiji period.
Today, unfortunately I don't bring you videos, again, and fewer photos, because I spent the entire tour speaking to Sakurai Haruo and some other japanese friends. But I hope you still enjoyed this small post of today. Remember that you can ask anything, if the curiosity rises.
Tomorrow my day will be the same: classes in the morning, and a tour in the afternoon. Where will I go? What will I write about? Well, lets say that I will cross the paths of thousands of people.
Diogo here, thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!
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