{"id":2181,"date":"2015-02-28T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T12:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/?p=2181"},"modified":"2015-02-28T12:07:16","modified_gmt":"2015-02-28T12:07:16","slug":"learning-about-ise-at-kogakkan-day-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/2015\/02\/learning-about-ise-at-kogakkan-day-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning about Ise at Kogakkan: Day 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I’ve noted in a previous post, at one point there was only a single pilgrim allowed to visit Ise; a female relative of the emperor called the Sai\u014d \u658e\u738b. Today we visited the Sai\u014d’s classical period palace, called the Saik\u016b \u658e\u5bae. At the Saik\u016b history museum we watched a video about how a young girl would made the long and arduous trek from the Heian court in Kyoto to this remote palace a day’s walk from Ise. (Nobody knows why the Saik\u016b is so far from the Jing\u016b.) The princess had to maintain royal dignity even far from the city, so she was carried the entire way in a palanquin, including a hike over the mountains. Once they arrived at the Saik\u016b, they had to obey the directional taboos and wait for a lucky day to enter. The Sai\u014d would stay in her palace for about five to eight years, then she would be carried back.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

In fact this palace hadn’t existed for roughly 800 years before the 20th century. From the mists of the 6th century AD to the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, a Sai\u014d was continuously appointed, but by the time the Heian court dissolved into civil war, the Saik\u016b was no longer a place for a lady, and it was abandoned in 1274. Around the year 1180, the wandering poet Saigy\u014d<\/a> stopped by its decrepit remains on the way to Ise, and jotted down a bit of singsongy dustsceawung:<\/p>\n

\u3044\u3064\u304b\u307e\u305f\u3000\u3044\u3064\u304d\u306e\u5bae\u306e\u3000\u3044\u3064\u304b\u308c\u3066\u3000\u3057\u3081\u306e\u307f\u3046\u3061\u306b\u3000\u3061\u308a\u3092\u306f\u3089\u306f\u3093<\/p>\n

Whither this weathered palace? I wonder whether it will ever again be made pure, if ever the rubbish will be swept from its sacred grounds<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

About 800 years later, ever-literal moderns did a close archaeological survey to figure out what the palace once looked like, and rebuilt it and swept the rubbish from its grounds. This year, three more buildings will be constructed, placing new wooden pillars precisely where the old ones used to be. We were given a surprise tour of the construction site, which was a surprise to those among us who were wearing high heels.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

There’s already both a museum devoted to this complex, and a “history experience hall” in the completed rebuilt building. So this new building will be a space for events, such as the national karuta<\/em> competition, or traditional arts like Noh plays. <\/p>\n

The village where the Saik\u016b was once located is otherwise known for farming. When I was there I saw a farmer driving a tractor down one of the ancient stone paths that the Sai\u014d would have taken to get to Ise. There is very much a countryside feel to this place. If you ever get the chance to visit the Saik\u016b, make sure to go to the little cafeteria across from the “history experience hall”, where you can enjoy a palanquin-shaped bento made entirely of local foods.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

The other thing we did today was go to the fish paste (kamaboko) factory and make some fish paste cakes, but I don’t have any good pictures of that. Wait, I lied!<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve noted in a previous post, at one point there was only a single pilgrim allowed to visit Ise; a female relative of the emperor called the Sai\u014d \u658e\u738b. Today we visited the Sai\u014d’s classical period palace, called the Saik\u016b \u658e\u5bae. At the Saik\u016b history museum we watched a video about how a young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2195,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/2195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avery.morrow.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}