Firefighters and police entered a shopping district near the Geku, or Outer Shrine, of Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture on September 1 to investigate the cause of the fire that broke out on August 31 and assess the extent of the damage.

The fire broke out in a shopping district at around 3:20PM, and prompted evacuation orders for hundreds of people in the surrounding area.

The fire has still not been fully extinguished, more than 20 hours after it started.

Most of the buildings in the shopping district were destroyed by the fire and are now barely recognizable.

The Ise Grand Shrine, which enshrines Amaterasu-Omikami, the ancestral deity of the imperial family, is considered one of Japan’s most sacred and prestigious Shinto shrines.

Firefighters who responded to the blaze said many of the buildings were old wooden structures that caught fire easily.

They also said the corrugated metal roofing of the covered shopping arcade made it difficult for firefighting water to reach the flames.

Evacuation orders were issued for 249 households, or 528 people, in the surrounding area.

No injuries have been reported.