It seems just possible that, looking back from a safe distance, Japan's people will regard this dreadful moment not just as a time of death, grief and mourning, but also as a time of rebirth.

Then again, if he had done that, we would have been deprived of one of the great villains, who announced his rebirth by ordering the death of Him From Twilight and went on to terrorise a nation.

The shrine is demolished and rebuilt every 20 years in keeping with the Shinto idea of death and rebirth (the next rebuilding will be in 2013).