9 Jinjahoncho

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The headquarters for the main Shinto shrine organization in Japan is based upon the shrine system set up during Meiji, and has as its main shrine the Grand Shrine at Ise. This organization controls more than twenty thousand shrines spread around the archipelago. But the headquarters (as would be expected) are in Tokyo, adjacent to the Meiji Shrine, which is one of the largest open spaces in the central city, and one of its properties. The headquarters building was recently rebuilt and now resembles the headquarters of any large corporation: its tower is clad in glass, stainless steel, and marble.

I visited the Jinjahoncho in 1989, looking for information on the current situation of Shinto festivals in Japan. Their representative provided me with a video they had produced for an agricultural fair in Brussels, at which Japan’s Agriculture Ministry was pleading for the continued closure of Japan’s rice market.

The Ise Jingu as portrayed in IBM Japan’s “small planet” website: http://www.ibm.park.org/Japan/hometown/ise/ise-e.html. This is on IBM home page for the 1996 internet World Expo in Japan.

I was also told about the plans to reconstruct the Ise Shrine, an event that happens every twenty years. The next reconstruction would be the most expense of all, they noted. This wooden structure, about the size of a Santa Barbara 4-car garage, would be rebuilt at a cost of something greater than $US 800 million.

“Doesn’t that create an economic problem for your organization?” I asked. They assured me that their annual intake was more than sufficient to cover this.