Kotai Jingu (Ise Naiku)

Kotai Jingu, located in Uji-tachi-cho, Ise City, Mie Prefecture, is the inner shrine (Naiku) of Ise Jingu. The principal deity is Amaterasu-omikami, recorded in the upper book of the Kojiki as the chief deity of the High Plain of Heaven who emerged from the purification of Izanagi and who, in the descent of the heavenly grandson, entrusted the three regalia to her grandson Ninigi-no-Mikoto. The shintai is the Yata-no-Kagami, one of the three regalia. According to the Suinin Tenno chapter of the Nihon Shoki, in the twenty-sixth year of the eleventh emperor, Princess Yamato-hime-no-Mikoto sought a permanent enshrinement site for Amaterasu and settled here on the upper reaches of the Isuzu River. The first shikinen sengu was performed in the fourth year of Jito Tenno (690), and since then the buildings have been rebuilt every twenty years; the most recent was the 62nd sengu in 2013. Together with the Geku at Toyokawa-cho, it forms the dual sanctuary of Ise Jingu. The Kanname-sai on October 17 is the chief annual rite, when new grain is offered to Amaterasu.