Coronation

The new Emperor of Japan was officially crowned today. It was another special holiday today – I missed that completely – but since the main events of the transition are over, it was also the last holiday.

The ceremony was rather solemn and subdued, with lots of traditional pomp that goes back to the Heian Period, about 1000 years ago. I didn’t have time to watch all of it, but here is a video of the coronation ceremony, it’s about 70 minutes long. Be warned though, there are long, long periods in between where nothing much happens!


From a quick glance at the video, one thing is interesting: The whole family is there in the throne room, plus a few members of the Japanese parliament – but I could not see the Emperor Emeritus or his wife anywhere. The man in the wheelchair is the uncle of the current Emperor, as far as I know, but his father is not present. Interesting, isn’t it?


2 thoughts on “Coronation”

  1. I assume the former emperor did not attend because usually they wouldn’t still be alive at this point and presumably there is no place in the ceremonies for him. (also 2.0x helps when watching ;D )

    1. Well, technically, a long long time ago, the emperors tended to retire, so they were still around for the coronation of the new one. 😉
      I asked a friend and she said it’s more to drive the idea home that there’s only one emperor at any time, so the old one (who in this case has the formal title Emperor Emeritus) is not supposed to be present. I also guess that he will not be doing any other formal occasions or even semi-private visits either, and we won’t see him on TV anymore. Apparently he’s interested in fish (Goby in particular) and I hope he has a lot of time to pursue his interests.

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