Japan has an amazing series of over 100 shrines, known as the Ise Grand Shrine, the most sacred shrine in the country. Dedicated to Amaterasu, the Sun goddess, this wondrous place has existed since 4BC, and it is thought that the main shrine contains the single, most important item in Japanese imperial history, the Naik? . This is the mirror, from Japanese mythology, which graced the hands of the first emperors of Japan. Demolished, purely to enable rebuilding, every 20 years, honoring Shinto ideas of death and rebirth, the shrine is barred to anyone but the priest or priestess, who has to a member of the Japanese imperial family Everyone else is kept away by very alert guards.
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