Veneration and Significance

In the imperial tradition the treasures are not worshipped as gods but revered as the sacred insignia of the throne and, in the case of the Ise mirror, as the shintai, the object in which the presence of Amaterasu abides. Their transmission is the heart of the accession: a new emperor's legitimacy is expressed by the conveyance of the sword and jewel (and, at Ise and Atsuta, the abiding of mirror and sword) rather than by any crowning. The rite is conducted with the objects sealed from sight, and their handling is limited to a small number of priests and officials.

Their concealment is itself a religious value. The tradition holds that the treasures are too sacred to be exposed, and the restriction on seeing or depicting them is respected here: the entry records what the chronicles and custodians attest and the questions scholars raise, without reconstructing the hidden objects. For Shinto and for the imperial institution they remain the supreme material symbols of continuity and rule.