Japanese Shinto Shrine Architecture

Timeline

1. 1251Shrines in the Kinai region and around Kamakura · Kamakura periodIn the mid-thirteenth century, the shogunate, the court, and temple-shrine powers continued to fund shrine repairs; Kasuga Grand Shrine, Hachiman-affiliated shrines, and local kunitsu-no-kami shrines commonly adopted a honden-haiden-cloister layout, with torii and approach paths reinforcing the boundaries of sacred space, and shrine buildings became an institutional tool of the warrior regime for integrating local beliefs.
2. c. 1255Naiku of Ise Grand Shrine · IseIse Grand Shrine maintains the tradition of rebuilding and transferring the shrine every twenty years (shikinen sengu), using the pillar-less Ise-style honden, raised floors, and thatch roofs, with pure timber construction embodying the Shinto concept of constant renewal; this model remained the exemplary reference for shrine architecture nationwide in the thirteenth century.