Show JAPANS ANCESTRAL GODS one of the most marvelous of patriotic and religious enthusiasm in mod ern japan was occasioned recently by transference of the imperial shrines at ise to their new tabernacle just completed the lon don standard says this remarkable shinto hesthal may be witnessed only every 21 year years when the temples of the ancestral gods are reconstructed and the sacred objects are re moved to their new abode the ise temples have been thus renewed every score of years since A D at least and tor for how long before that no one knows the present occasion being the fifty sei anth rebuilding on record such a periodic reconstruction will appear quite necess necessary arv when it Is recollected that on these shrines no mortal hand Is ever permit ted to execute repairs after they are built the gods of the nation take possession of them and thenceforward they are not touched till they go the way of all thines things I 1 I 1 the ork of rebuilding the sacred shrine begins almost as soon as the last tion Is complete by the appointment of an im m aerial commission In trusted with the important enterprise every stage la Is marked b religious ceremonies from the felling of the tho trees to the driving of the last nail the corn com altion is emphasized by a special festival 01 ol purification after which the temples pass from the hands of the commissioners to the priestly custodians of the imperial shrines finally comes the great festival of demov ing the ancestral gods and the sacred treasures and relics to the new holy of holles holies which took place recently it is computed that no fewer than 40 persons were present on the night of the actual removal though the august spectacle takes place at night the pr preparation for it appears to go on for two or three days previously but the ceremonies of the notable day itself are the most interesting the day opened with the appearance before the new temples of a specially chosen virgin who went through a peculiar ceremony of burying in the ground before the shrine a jar containing offerings to the god of earth later in the day began a long procession of priests in gorgeous robes of green and gold charting char ting weird litanies and mono toning sutras to the strains of archaic instruments it ia Is affirmed that the service has in no respect been changed during the last thousand years with the settling down of darkness came the great function of removal A detachment ol 01 priests led by a priestly representative of the imperial house went into the soon to be aban boned shrines to examine the treasures and to measure the sacred fabrics As the latter are reputed to be more than feet in length this was no small matter |