Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction Divine Capital: Ise and its Agents -- 1. Ancient Ise: Divine wrath and court politics -- 2. Classical Ise: Hosophobia codified -- 3. Amaterasu's escape from Ise -- 4. Ise in the Kamakura period: Lands and secrets -- 5. Ise in the Muromachi period: War and pilgrims -- 6. Ise restored and Shintoized -- 7. Pilgrims' pleasures: Ise and its Patrons in the Edo Period -- 8. Meiji Ise: Amaterasu's Mausoleum and the Modern Pilgrim -- 9. Ise and Nation in Taisho and early Showa Japan -- 10. Crisis and Recovery: Ise's Post-War Transformations -- Conclusion: Phases of Redevelopment

The Ise shrine complex is among Japan's most enduring national symbols, and A Social History of the Ise Shrines: Divine Capital is the first book to trace the history of the shrines from their beginnings in the seventh century until the present day. Ise enshrines the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, the imperial ancestress and the most prominent among kami deities, and has played a vital role in Japan's social, political and religious history. The most popular pilgrims' attraction in the land from the sixteenth century onwards, in 2013 the Ise complex once again captured the nation's attention as it underwent its periodic rebuilding, performed once every twenty years. Mark Teeuwen and John Breen demonstrate that the Ise Shrines underwent drastic re-inventions as a result of on-going contestation between different groups of people in different historical periods. They focus on the agents responsible for these re-inventions, the nature of the economic, political and ideological measures they took, and the specific techniques they deployed to ensure that Ise survived one crisis after another in the course of its long history. This book questions major assumptions about Ise, notably the idea that Ise has always been defined by its imperial connections, and that it has always been a site of Shinto