Ise Jingu Shrine, fresh off its Sengyo-no-gi in October, the main event in the "shikinen sengu" ritual of transferring the deity to a new shrine building every two decades, is drawing record crowds.
The number of worshippers flocking to the shrine in Ise, Mie Prefecture, passed the 10 million mark this year for the first time since tallies were first kept in 1896.
According to Noboru Okada, a professor at Kogakkan University who specializes in the history of Shinto shrines, the boom is reminiscent of the Edo Period, when the shrine saw mass pilgrimages from all over the country.