Consider,
for example, these strange forms. They are certainly not simple, and have
no apparent structural purpose. Rather they represent very elegant and
stylized symbols of the most primitive architectural forms native to Japan,
forms which by the time Ise was firmly established had for the most part
been outmoded by more advanced Chinese methods of building. Ise Shrine
thus became a self-conscious way of preserving these now-functionless shapes
of the native tradition, and the practice of faithful rebuilding has maintained
them to this day.