Shinto ("the way of the gods") is Japan's traditional religion. Followers of Shintoism worship the natural world - animals, plants, stones and places of great beauty. The ancestors and heroes of old are also sacred. Japan has around 80,000 Shinto shrines, the chief one being the Grand Shrine at Ise. Ise Grand Shrine, with its two-thousand year history, is Japan's most important Shinto shrine and serves as the center of all shrines nationwide. Situated near the banks of the Isuzu River, the shrine is surrounded by 800-year-old Ise Grand Shrine cedars. Ise Grand Shrine consists of two groups of buildings: Geku (outer) and Naiku (Inner). The Inner is more important as it honours and is considered to be the abode of Amaterasu, the sun goddess - the deity the emperor was considered to be descended from. This shrine is still considered to have close connections with the Royal Family. The shrine is customarily torn down every 20 years to be replaced on an adjacent lot by an identical set. The current set is the 220th. The shrine is assembled completely without nails. The present buildings reproduce the temple first ceremoniously rebuilt in 692 CE by Empress Jito. The first temple had been built by her husband Emperor Temmu (678-686), the first Mikado to rule over a united Japan.