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Elaborate structure: The Takamikura throne (left) and Michodai, a curtained platform, at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, western Japan. — AP

A rehearsal was held at the Imperial Palace in the Chiyoda Ward of Tokyo on Oct. 19, three days before the enthronement ceremony of Japanese Emperor Naruhito. The last such ceremony was held 29 years ago, in 1990. 

During the rehearsal, which was performed by proxies for Naruhito (the 126th in the imperial line), Empress Masako, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the imperial couple’s thrones were unveiled: the 6.5m Takamikura and the 5.3m Michodai. 

At the enthronement ceremony, which will be held on the afternoon of Oct. 22, Naruhito will be wearing an orange robe called the Korozen-no-goho and entering a reception room called Matusnoma (room of pinewood) at the Imperial Palace. Attendants will come in bearing the bronze sword Kusanagi and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama, two of the three treasures that constitute Japan’s Imperial Regalia. 

After ascending the Takamikura throne, Naruhito will share his thoughts about his enthronement. Then Abe, standing below the emperor, will deliver a congratulatory address, and the other participants will chant “long live the emperor” three times. 

While Naruhito acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1, his enthronement ceremony (called Sokuire-seiden-no-gi in Japanese) is held to officially promulgate that news to both Japan and the wider world. The Japanese government sends invitations to the enthronement ceremony to the 190 countries that Japan recognizes. Major figures from around the world will be visiting Japan, including South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon; Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan; and Charles, Prince of Wales, from the UK. 

The formalities related to Naruhito’s enthronement last for about six months after his accession to the throne in May, with the enthronement being one of the central ceremonies. Subsequent events include an imperial motorcar procession on Nov. 10 (delayed because of the havoc wreaked by Typhoon Hagibis) and the Daijosai on Nov. 14-15, a rite in which the new emperor offers rice from the year’s harvest to Amaterasu, the ancestral god of the Japanese imperial dynasty. 

The rituals related to enthronement contain many elements of Shinto, Japan’s traditional religion. Daijosai has a particularly strong religious character, which has prompted calls for the event to be held by the royal family, rather than the state. Last year, Naruhito’s younger brother Crown Prince Fumihito stirred up controversy when he argued that the costs of Daijosai should be paid by the royal family, rather than the state. 

But the Abe administration decided to maintain previous governments’ practice of using state funds. The Japanese Communist Party has announced that it will be boycotting the enthronement ceremony on the grounds that the various rituals related to enthronement violate the separation of church and state, a principle enshrined in Japan’s constitution.

Past opposition to enthronement ceremony mostly gone today 

But at the moment, groups like the Japanese Communist Party that are opposed to the enthronement ceremony remain a minority in Japanese society. The mood today is quite different from the enthronement of Akihito in 1990, when anti-imperial groups created chaos by launching 143 guerilla attacks, which included firing mortars at royal facilities and setting shrines on fire. A bomb even went off at a dormitory for single police officers in Shinjuku, Tokyo, killing one and injuring eight. 

Vocal criticism about the imperial system has nearly disappeared in Japan, largely because Japanese society has grown increasingly conservative during the 74 years since the end of World War II. Another factor is that, during the reign of Akihito, the emperor came to be regarded as a symbol of the state, rather than an actual ruler. Technically speaking, Hirohito was the first “symbolic emperor,” but it was Akihito, with his affection for Japan’s current peace constitution, who drove the point home. 

The Abe administration is taking advantage of Akihito’s abdication and Naruhito’s enthronement to underscore the regime’s conservative nature. The name selected for the new imperial era is Reiwa (Beautiful Harmony). The word is drawn for the first time from the Manyoshu, a collection of classical Japanese poetry, rather than from a Chinese classic, a choice that underlines Japanese national identity. However, some experts have come out and declared that Manyoshu ultimately has origins in Chinese literature. 

NGOs in Japan are concerned that Abe could use the enthronement ceremony and the festive mood during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to set the stage for amending Japan’s peace constitution, which he has described as his life’s work. 

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent 

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