In
this cage rests the most esoteric and in a sense the most erotic symbol
in Japanese culture. It is the shin-no-mihashira, or "heart-pillar,"
a round wooden post set directly into the ground. All we know of the extremely
secret rituals surrounding it is that it is realigned in the occasion of
each rebuilding, and that separate pillars are permanently maintained at
both the current and alternate sites. Presumably it must be replaced from
time to time. The symbolism of the pillar, however, is more obvious, and
takes us back to the myth of the founding of the Japanese islands.