The Itsukushima Shrine, located on Miyajima, is a Shinto shrine built over 1400 years ago as a shrine to several goddesses and deities of the sea. Since its original construction, it has been restored and rebuilt several times, but retains the architecture and detail of its original form.
-The reading mentions that the Buddhist idea of "pure land" may have been one of the reasons for the shrines location. Why would a Shinto shrine incorporate Buddhist beliefs? -I am eager to see the shrine not only because of its spectacular ocean setting, but because ancient historical sites in Tokyo can be very rare and hard to come by. -I thought it was interesting that the shrine, a religious monument, was used by the ruling clans as a symbolic gathering space, and how people during the Meiji period used one of its rooms to pray for good market conditions. This connects the shrine with religious, political, and economic activities.
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Ann EvansMy 3 Weeks in Japan with UW Honors and Waseda University Archives
September 2017
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