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"Shinmei-style'. The primal style of shrine architecture (- zukuri) used for the main shrine (mi-shoden) of Ise jingu (which is the only example technically known as Yui-itsu-shinmei, 'unique shinmei'), and for some shrines elsewhere. The Atsuta jinja was rebuilt in 1935 in shinmei style. It is one of the oldest styles and features primitive building techniques in a spare and immaculate straight-line design, apparently deriving from Polynesian or south Chinese storehouse architecture. Rebuilt on adjoining plots every twenty years (see Shikinen sengu) the Ise shrine is thought to preserve virtually its original form. It is made of unpainted wood with two supporting pillars for the ridgepole, a verandah and a thatched roof with ten logs (katsuogi) placed across the ridgepole at intervals and two long slender bargeboards (chigi) pierced with 'wind holes" (kaze-kiri) projecting in an X shape above the ridgepole at each end A Popular Dictionary of Shinto (Brian Bocking) |
