Offering the First Grain

Niiname-sai is the harvest thanksgiving of Shinto, the offering of the season's newly harvested grain to the kami, held in late autumn. Its central act is the presentation of the new rice, and at the imperial level it is one of the most important rites of the ritual year: the emperor, in his priestly role, offers the new grain to the deities, above all to the sun deity Amaterasu, and himself partakes of it, an act understood to renew the relationship between the ruler, the kami and the land's fertility.

The rite is ancient, mentioned in the earliest Japanese chronicles, and is performed both at the imperial palace and at shrines throughout the country. A once-in-a-reign version of it, the Daijosai, is celebrated by each new emperor after accession as the grandest of the enthronement rites. In modern Japan the day has also been reframed in the civil calendar as a public holiday of labour and thanksgiving.