Set stones by first placing a principal stone and then others that answer it, following the “request” each makes; recall famous landscapes; and obey the taboos: a stone that lay flat in nature should not be set upright, nor one that stood upright laid flat.
Rebuild the shrine every twenty years
Every twenty years build an exact replica of each sanctuary on the alternate site beside it, transfer the deity at night, and dismantle the old buildings.
cycle = 20 years · two sites used alternately
The custom is traditionally dated to the reign of Empress Jitō, with the first rebuilding of the Inner Shrine in 690; the sixty-second took place in 2013. The practice keeps fresh a building of perishable thatch and posts sunk in the earth, but it also preserves something else: the skills of the carpenters, who pass them on at every cycle, and a form that is authentic by repetition rather than by the survival of old material. This is a challenge to Western ideas of conservation.
Related rules
Where there is no pond or stream, make the landscape of stones alone: set rocks as mountains, cliffs and islands, and let gravel or sand stand for water.
Lay the mats of a room so that their joints form T-junctions: no point where the corners of four mats meet, and no continuous seam running straight across the room.
Pitch a roof no lower than its covering allows (roughly 45° for thatch, 35° for plain tiles, 20–25° for slate, 15–20° for interlocking tiles, a few degrees for sheet metal) and steeper where snow lies long or rain is heavy.
thatch ≥ 45° · plain tile ≥ 35° · slate ≥ 22½° · pantile ≥ 17½° · metal ≥ 5° · membrane ≈ 1–2°
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Rebuild the shrine every twenty years”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/shikinen-sengu. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.