by Susan Flantzer
The Great Thanksgiving Festival (Daijo-sai) is the last and most controversial of the accession ceremonies because it is the one in which Emperor Naruhito of Japan is united to his traditional ancestor the sun goddess Amaterasu to share in her divinity. There is no mention of this ceremony in the Constitution imposed by the American occupation forces after World War II. Its legality was questioned after the accession of Emperor Akihito.
Miniatures of the two huts; Credit – http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp
The ceremony requires that two thatched-roof huts, each with two rooms be built within a special enclosure. One room contains a large couch at the center and the second room is used by musicians. These two structures represent the house of the previous Emperor and that of the new Emperor.
Emperor Akihito dressed for the Great Thanksgiving Festival in 1990
After a ritual bath, Emperor Naruhito will be dressed in the white silk dress of a Shinto priest but with a special long train. Surrounded by courtiers, the Emperor will solemnly enter the enclosure and then each of the huts in turn and perform the same ritual twice, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM in the first hut and from 12:30 to 3:30 AM in the second hut. A mat will be unrolled before the Emperor and then rolled up again as he walks so that his feet never touch the ground. A special umbrella will be held over the Emperor’s head that prevents any defilement of his sacred person coming from the air above him.
During the ritual, Emperor Naruhito will kneel on a mat facing towards the direction of the Ise Grand Shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu and will make an offering of sacred rice, sake, millet, fish and a variety of other foods from both the land and the sea to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Then he will eat some of the sacred rice himself, as an act of divine communion which consummates his unity with Amaterasu, making him the intermediary between Amaterasu and the Japanese people.
Works Cited
- En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Enthronement of the Japanese Emperor. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthronement_of_the_Japanese_Emperor [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].
- Weisman, S. (1990). AKIHITO PERFORMS HIS SOLITARY RITE. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/23/world/akihito-performs-his-solitary-rite.html [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].
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