A Shrine Town in Summer: Ise

Featuring the bustling shrine town surrounding Ise Grand Shrine and clusters of merchant shops in Kawasaki. Ise City, Mie Prefecture

Ise Jingu Shrine consists of both the Geku (or outer shrine), which enshrines Miketsukami / Toyouke no Okami (god of grain) that offers food to Amaterasu Omikami, and the Naiku (or inner shrine), which enshrines the ancestral gods of the Japanese imperial family and Amaterasu Omikami. The Ise pilgrimage is a customary visit to the shrine that starts from the Geku. Oharai Machi is the common name of a town located along the former roadway leading up to the front gates of the Naiku. It has welcomed large numbers of pilgrims since long ago in the Edo Period. The townscape features buildings with the same awe-inspiring hirairi-zukuri architectural style (where the entrance is on a non-gabled side) as the shrine, as well as rows of gabled private residences built in the tsumairi-zukuri style (where the entrance is on one of the gabled sides). It consists of rows of restaurants offering foods like Ise udon, a local specialty, as well as souvenir shops and more. Right in front of Akafuku Honten is Okage Yokomachi, which recreates the townscape as it existed from the Edo through the Meiji Eras, where visitors can enjoy a variety of different experiences. Roughly four kilometers to the north of this area is Kawasaki. Located along the Seta River, which flows into Ise Bay, merchant shops with white plaster walls and storehouses surrounded by black panel fences still remain there to this day. Once known as the "Kitchen of Ise," Kawasaki flourished as a port town that welcomed pilgrims travelling to Ise Grand Shrine

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