“Revd Shiraishi, you have to close the shrine grounds.â€ Akiko was getting very frustrated, but Shiraishi just frowned and shook her head.

“They want us to close. It would be an admission of defeat.â€

“<em>Temporarily.</em> Just until the clearance is finished.â€ She looked out at the precincts, where protesters were milling about, getting in the way as the workmen tried to cart the rubble away from the ruins of the shrine. She couldn’t see Naoyuki at the moment, but she could see Mr Akiyama, the local headmaster, who appeared to be the ring-leader.

“We can just ask them to move.â€

“I’ve been doing that for the last few days. Any one of them moves out of the way when asked, but someone you haven’t asked then gets in the way, and you have to ask them, as well. The workmen keep threatening to give up until the protesters go away.

“You <em>know</em> this. You’ve been doing it as well.â€ Akiko realised that she was almost shouting, and took a deep breath to get herself under control. The protesters’ strategy was proving remarkably effective; they were always polite, and never resisted requests to get out of the way, but there were enough of them to make it difficult to clear the area. They’d had to set barriers up round the ruins after the first day, because protesters kept wandering in. Of course, they left as soon as they were told it was dangerous, but nothing got done that day. Nor the following day, because it took a long time to get the barriers set up with the protesters on the outside. Now they just got in the way of workmen leaving with rubbish, slowing things down even more. The cost of clearing the site was already well over twice the estimate, and the job was barely begun. Thinking about it made Akiko even more frustrated.

“Revd Shiraishi, <em>there is no choice</em>. They are trying to make it take so long that we can’t afford to finish rebuilding the shrine. We have to close the precincts while we get the area cleared, at least.â€ Akiko was almost shouting again, and caught herself. It was only then that she noticed the tears standing in Shiraishi’s eyes. “What?â€

“The shrine never closes. People should always be able to come to pay their respects to the kami.â€

“But we have to rebuild the shrine buildings! We…â€ Akiko fell silent as Shiraishi just shook her head again. Akiko found herself biting her lip in frustration. There must be some way to get around the problem?

“All right, how about this. We get the workmen to gather as much rubbish as they can move in one trip, then clear the shrine temporarily, just while they move it out. Then people can come back in.â€ Shiraishi seemed about to object, so Akiko hurried on. “It’s not closing the shrine. It’s just asking people to go out for a while. They can come back in almost immediately afterwards. That’s all right, surely?â€

The priest sucked in a deep breath, looking at Akiko and then turning to look out of the window. Finally, she nodded.

“Yes, that’s all right. Let’s do it that way.â€