Rituals
Daijosai
Devotional Rituals
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Origin from 700
The Daijosai, the great thanksgiving rite, is the most solemn accession ritual of a Japanese emperor, performed once in a reign, in which the newly enthroned emperor offers the new harvest to the kami and shares the sacred meal with them for the first time as sovereign. It is, in form, a grand and unrepeatable performance of the annual harvest thanksgiving, conducted at specially built ritual halls that are raised for the occasion and afterwards dismantled, through a night of offering and communion whose innermost acts are not public. Understood traditionally as the rite by which the sovereign enters into a unique relationship with the ancestral and national deities, it is the ritual heart of an imperial succession, distinct from the civil enthronement ceremony that accompanies it.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Origin Period Origin PeriodPerformed in its modern form in 1928, 1990 and 2019 2 Place of Origin Historical OriginThe Daijosai's core structure is first securely documented in the historical record for the reign of Emperor Temmu in the late seventh century, though tradition traces its origins to the mythic first harvest offering of the sun goddess Amaterasu; the rite was interrupted for over two centuries during Japan's medieval period of civil war and imperial poverty before being revived in the Edo period. 3 Attributions
PurposeBeyond its religious meaning, the rite's public funding and performance have been politically contested in postwar Japan, where its cost is met from the state's Imperial House economy budget under a legal separation from the constitutional wall between religion and state, a compromise repeatedly challenged in Japanese courts by critics who argue it constitutes state establishment of Shinto. 2 Practice
Who Performs ItTrained or authorised specialists 1 FrequencyOnce, or at a turning point in a life 1 Once in a reign Solitary or CommunalPerformed by the emperor; its innermost acts are not public Meaning
Literal MeaningDaijosai combines characters read as great, thanksgiving or offering, and festival or rite, so the name itself identifies the ceremony as the great, or once in a reign, version of the ordinary annual Niinamesai harvest thanksgiving the emperor performs every other year of his reign. 4 Form
Implements and MaterialsThe new rice of the harvest 1 Implements and MaterialsTwo halls raised for the occasion and dismantled afterwards 1 Cultural Restriction
Restricted TraditionThe Daijosai's innermost acts, performed by the newly enthroned emperor through the night in halls built specially for the occasion, are not made public and are witnessed by no one; the halls are dismantled afterward. The atlas records the rite's structure, purpose and history as the tradition has itself published them and does not describe what happens inside the halls. 1 Learn More
The Once-In-A-Reign Accession Rite
The Daijosai, the great thanksgiving, is the most solemn accession rite of a Japanese emperor, performed once in a reign after enthronement. It is an enlarged and unrepeatable form of the annual harvest thanksgiving (Niiname-sai): the newly enthroned emperor offers the season's new rice to the sun goddess Amaterasu and the other kami and shares the meal with them, in specially built halls that are dismantled afterward. The rite is conducted at night and in seclusion, and its innermost acts are not publicly witnessed, which has made their interpretation a matter of long scholarly debate.
Its modern practice is politically freighted. Because the ceremony expresses the emperor's ritual relationship to the kami, its performance under Japan's postwar constitution, which separates religion from the state, has drawn legal challenge and public argument each time it has been held, most recently in 1990 and 2019. Historians also stress that the elaborate continuous antiquity often claimed for it is partly a construction: the rite lapsed for centuries and was revived and reshaped in the early modern and modern periods, so its present form carries a good deal of comparatively recent design.
A Religious Rite Funded by a Secular State
Because the Daijosai is understood as the emperor's first performance of the annual Niiname-sai harvest rite in his new reign, it inherited that rite's postwar reclassification as a private religious act of the imperial family rather than an act of state, a reclassification that has produced real, recurring controversy precisely because a modern Japanese emperor's enthronement still involves public funds. Both of the most recent Daijosai, held for Emperor Akihito in 1990 and for Emperor Naruhito in 2019, drew formal objections and legal challenges from citizens and commentators who argued that using public money to fund a specifically religious ceremony conflicts with the postwar constitution's separation of religion from the state, a tension the government has generally managed by funding the rite through the Imperial Household budget under a legal characterization intended to distinguish it from ordinary state religious establishment, an arrangement critics continue to dispute rather than one that has been definitively settled.
The temporary shrine complex built specifically for the rite and dismantled afterward, and the fact that it is performed only once in a reign rather than repeated, both underline how unusual the ceremony is even within Japan's wider imperial ritual calendar, a single unrepeatable event around which a live and unresolved argument about the proper boundary between religion and the state continues to recur with each new reign.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Addressed To
Belongs to Tradition
Conducted By
The great thanksgiving rite belongs to the accession of the office.
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