Ise Grand Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu Oomikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture. Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū and Gekū.
The Inner Shrine, Naikū (also officially known as "Kotai Jingū"), is located in the town of Uji-tachi, south of central Ise City, and is dedicated to the worship of Amaterasu Oomikami. The Outer Shrine, Gekū (also officially known as "Toyouke Daijingu"), is located about six kilometers from Naikū and dedicated to Toyouke no Oomikami, the deity of agriculture and industry.
Amaterasu is one of the major deities in Japanese mythology. She is the goddess of the sun and the universe. Her full name means the Grand August deity who shines in heaven. Supposedly the current royal family of Japan are direct descendants of her. She rules the sun and the heavens with her brother, Tsukuyomi who is the ruler of the moon and the night. She was born from the left eye of Izanagi while he was purifying himself after returning from the underworld in an attempt to save his wife (And it's possible that she is also his sister but I am not clear on that), Izanami, when she died in childbirth.
In the beginning she had shared the skies with her brother (Who is also her husband... hmm...) but was turned away from him when he killed the goddess of food, calling him an evil deity she separated from him causing night and day to split.
Amaterasu also has another brother, the god of storms Susanoo, who would often visit her. He was a very rough god and would often trample her prized flower gardens, filling the rice fields with mud and in general not being very nice. However because he was her brother she endured his visits until one time when he went too far and killed several villagers and animals. She was so angry at his behaviour that she disappeared into a cave, and because of this the sun disappeared, plunging the world into an endless night.
As you may know, in stories, night time is the time for ghosts and goblins and this is no different. When she let the world plunge into darkness, the beasties decided to come out and wreak havoc on everyone and everything. All of the other gods and goddesses began to get worried about their sister and what was happening to the people that they discussed how they could trick her out of the cave.
They talked for many days until the god of wisdom, Omoikane, decided that they should have a party. A big rowdy celebration that will rouse her curiosity and make her peek outside. (Let it be known that in this story there is a door on the cave) One of the gods stood behind the door so that if she opened it a crack, he could take advantage of it and fully open the door. A mirror was hung just in front of the door.
Many gods began to dance and laugh and generally have a good time. The goddess of beauty stood up on a barrel and began doing a silly sexy dance before falling down into fits of laughter. The sun goddess heard their laughter and asked through the door why they happened to be laughing when surely the world must be covered in darkness. The goddess of beauty replied that they had must grander gods than she, which caused the sun goddess to peak out and see a beautiful bright mighty goddess figure. Her curiosity got the better of her as she wanted to know who it was so she opened the door a crack more. That was when the god of might, who had been standing behind the door, pulled it open and got her out of the cave. As soon as she exited there was a big cheer from all of the other gods and goddesses.
For his punishment, the god of storms was exiled from the sacred place and sentenced to live in western Japan.
(Hey~ I live in western Japan. >:[ Thanks a lot for the crummy weather)
So that's a general sum up of the sun goddess, where she came from as well as a story. Onto things about the shrine.
According the the chronicles of Japan, it was about 2000 years ago when the daughter of an emperor set out to find a permanent place for Amaterasu's worship. Up until that point her place of worship had been moved around Japan. The daughter has wandered around Japan for twenty years before she heard a voice say "(Ise) is a secluded and pleasant land. In this land I wish to dwell." And so it was that the shrine was built. It is a very sacred shrine and the general population will never be allowed to venture inside the shrine. Instead we are only allowed to walk and pray and worship at places around the shrine. There is a tall wooden gate blocking all access to the shrine.
Allegedly the sacred mirror that was in the story is inside the building. However as no one but the imperial family is allowed inside, this is only speculation. This shrine has been the most famous shrine in all of Japan for several hundreds of years. A long time ago, Japanese couples would always wish to visit the shrine, some would live lives of poverty, collecting money and forgoing food, clothes and everything else to save up for a trip to Ise shrine.
Actually there are a total of 125 shrines inside Ise shrine. There are the two main ones that I listed above as well as several others for deities and gods of different beliefs. Naikū, by the way, is the place of worship for the sun goddess as well as two others and Gekū is the place of worship for the moon god as well as three others.
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