It
of course makes perfect sense that a traditional agrarian society should
attach special importance to the harvest, and in fact most of the rituals
at Ise involve some connection with the production of rice, Japan's major
crop since pre-historic times. Here you see a rice-transplanting ceremony
at Ise, in which the gaily-dressed local residents pray for a successful
harvest. Yet the obvious symbolic importance of a harvest god is not in
itself sufficient reason for the twin-shrine system at Ise, a pattern which
is found nowhere else in Japan.