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==History & Changing Meanings==
==History & Changing Meanings==
According to tradition, the shrine at Ise dates back to at least the 1st century CE, if not earlier. Much of the shrine's ritual practices today regarded as "traditional," however, including the division of rituals into those of the inner shrine and those of the outer shrine, and the practice of having daughters of the Imperial family serve as shrine priestesses at Ise, date to the 670s-690s.<ref>Evelyn Rawski, ''Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives'', Cambridge University Press (2015), 118.</ref> Meanwhile, many other "traditional" practices associated with the shrine are actually modern inventions of the [[Meiji period]].
Ise was an extremely popular destination for pilgrimage during the [[Edo period]], with perhaps as many as three to four million people (more than ten percent of the entire population of the archipelago) setting out for Ise in any given year in the 18th to early 19th centuries. In a few peak years, as many as ten million people (one-third the population of the realm) may have set out on ''okage mairi'' ("pilgrimages of gratefulness").<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', UC Press (1998), 224.</ref> Pilgrimage was often an excuse, however, for simply obtaining the licenses to travel, and many people who claimed to be making pilgrimage to Ise in fact traveled elsewhere; even among those who did make it to Ise, the pleasure district of [[Furuichi]] was a powerful draw, revealing that this was for many people more about recreational travel or tourism than about devout religious pilgrimage.
Ise was an extremely popular destination for pilgrimage during the [[Edo period]], with perhaps as many as three to four million people (more than ten percent of the entire population of the archipelago) setting out for Ise in any given year in the 18th to early 19th centuries. In a few peak years, as many as ten million people (one-third the population of the realm) may have set out on ''okage mairi'' ("pilgrimages of gratefulness").<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', UC Press (1998), 224.</ref> Pilgrimage was often an excuse, however, for simply obtaining the licenses to travel, and many people who claimed to be making pilgrimage to Ise in fact traveled elsewhere; even among those who did make it to Ise, the pleasure district of [[Furuichi]] was a powerful draw, revealing that this was for many people more about recreational travel or tourism than about devout religious pilgrimage.
