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Emperor Naruhito Completes the Sokui no Rei and Daijosai Enthronement Rites

Shinto

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Origin from 2019

Between 22 October and 15 November 2019, Japan's Imperial Household carried out the formal rites completing Emperor Naruhito's enthronement, rooted in Shinto tradition and codified under the Imperial House Act. On 22 October 2019, Naruhito performed the Sokui no Rei, the enthronement proclamation ceremony, at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, first reporting his accession to the imperial ancestors at the palace shrines before appearing in the Takamikura, a pavilion housing the sword and the jewel of the Three Sacred Treasures, before roughly two thousand dignitaries from more than one hundred eighty countries, including Britain's Prince Charles. On 14 and 15 November 2019, the emperor and empress separately performed the Daijosai, the Great Thanksgiving Rite, offering sacred rice, sake, millet, fish and other foods to the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami and the assembled kami in temporary shrine structures built for the occasion on the palace grounds, ceremonies of roughly three hours each attended by more than five hundred officials including the prime minister. A celebratory parade originally scheduled for 22 October was postponed to 10 November because of Typhoon Hagibis.

Facts
Dates
Start Year
from 2019 1
Status
Established 1
Established marks the ceremonies' own occurrence, their dates and their ritual content as performed under the Imperial House Act and the Imperial Household Agency's own procedures. It is not a claim about the long running debate in Japan over state funding and government participation in the Daijosai, a religious rite for a single faith, which the country's postwar separation of religion and state has made a recurring point of dispute among scholars and within Japan's own courts.
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How Emperor Naruhito Completed the Sokui no Rei and Daijosai Enthronement Rites

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

On 22 October 2019, Emperor Naruhito performed the Sokui no Rei, the ceremony proclaiming his enthronement, at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. He first reported his accession to the imperial ancestors at the palace shrines, then appeared in the Takamikura, a pavilion housing the sword and the jewel of the Three Sacred Treasures, before roughly two thousand dignitaries from more than one hundred eighty countries, among them Britain's Prince Charles. A celebratory parade originally scheduled for the same day was postponed to 10 November because of Typhoon Hagibis.

On 14 and 15 November 2019, Naruhito and Empress Masako separately performed the Daijosai, the Great Thanksgiving Rite, offering sacred rice, sake, millet, fish and other foods to the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami and the assembled kami. Each ceremony, held in temporary shrine structures built for the occasion on the palace grounds, ran roughly three hours and drew more than five hundred officials, including the prime minister.

The rites, rooted in Shinto tradition and codified under the Imperial House Act, ran between 22 October and 15 November 2019 and completed the formal process of Naruhito's enthronement carried out by Japan's Imperial Household.

What the sequence marks is the ceremonial completion of one emperor's accession, dated across those three and a half weeks in 2019, distinct from any Daijosai performed by an earlier emperor. The Sokui no Rei proclaimed the reign before international dignitaries, and the Daijosai, performed days later and delayed around it only by the typhoon's disruption of the parade, addressed the kami directly.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Occurred In

Japan, Countries
Source Naruhito Proclaims His Enthronement in Ancient Ceremony (Reuters)Elaine Lies and Kiyoshi Takenaka

Spread Event Of

Shinto, Religions

Closes a 13 year gap since 2013's Mount Fuji Joins UNESCO's World Heritage List, the most recent event already on Shinto's map, with the most recent performance of the imperial enthronement rites.

Source Naruhito Proclaims His Enthronement in Ancient Ceremony (Reuters)Elaine Lies and Kiyoshi Takenaka
Sources
1. Naruhito Proclaims His Enthronement in Ancient Ceremony (Reuters)
Elaine Lies and Kiyoshi Takenaka, Reuters, carried by Euronews, 2019View the Source
Enthronement of the Japanese Emperor (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaView the Source
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