The
grand climax of the rebuilding process is this nighttime procession in
which the god, in the form of a sacred object known as the godbody (shintai),
is actually carried from the old site to the new one. In this 19th-century
print, you can see a column of priests descending the steps from the old
site at the Inner Shrine, some of them supporting a white curtain that
envelops the sacred godbody. The ceremony is a haunting one, carried on
by flickering torchlight to the sound of eery Shinto chants.