History
Mie occupies an unusual place in Japan’s cultural geography: it holds the country’s single most sacred religious site, and — in an entirely different register — the birthplace of one of its most successful luxury export industries.
Mie and the wider world
Ise Jingu’s connection to the wider world is mostly conceptual — it’s rarely visited by international tourists relative to its domestic importance, but the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trails nearby have built a genuine direct link: in 1998, the Kumano Kodo became officially twinned with Spain’s Camino de Santiago, and the two are the only pilgrimage routes anywhere in the world with UNESCO World Heritage status, with pilgrims who complete both eligible for a joint “dual pilgrim” certificate.
Mie’s more commercially significant global export came from a single entrepreneur: in 1893, Kokichi Mikimoto succeeded in cultivating the world’s first cultured pearl in Toba, after years of failed experiments — an innovation that eventually collapsed the market for wild natural pearls worldwide and built an entirely new global luxury industry around the technique he pioneered, still carried on by the Mikimoto brand today.
Neighbors: Mie between Kansai and Tokai
Mie sits at the edge of the Kansai region but leans partly toward the Tokai/Chubu area economically, with northern Mie closely tied to nearby Nagoya — a border position that gives it a slightly different regional identity than Kansai’s more central prefectures like Kyoto and Osaka.
Getting there and getting around
Ise-shi Station is reached from Osaka or Nagoya by direct limited express train in about 1.5-2 hours; there’s no shinkansen stop within Mie itself. A car or local bus is useful for reaching Kumano Kodo trailheads.
