With refreshing slurps of sake, a spot of medieval horseback samurai archery and solemn Shinto rites, Japanese yesterday rang in a new imperial era as Crown Prince Naruhito became their 126th emperor.
Unseasonable rain had somewhat dampened the party atmosphere for Tuesday’s historic abdication of Naruhito’s father emperor Akihito, with only a handful of hardy souls cowering under umbrellas to pay their respects at Tokyo’s sprawling Imperial Palace.
Yet the skies cleared yesterday for the first day of the Reiwa era — meaning “beautiful harmony” — and Japanese, enjoying an unprecedented 10-day holiday, packed into Meiji Shrine in central Tokyo to celebrate.
Photo: AFP
As crowds lined the path, about 30 Shinto priests wearing traditional white robes and tall black hats marched under a huge gate toward the main building to conduct a festive ceremony to “report” the new emperor’s accession to his ancestors, the Shinto gods.
Thirsty revelers also rushed to scoop up masu or plain wooden blocks filled with sake, with 1,000 free cups gone in just 30 minutes.
Shrine maidens wearing white robes and bright orange hakama, or wide-legged trousers, dished up the rice wine from a wooden barrel using a long ladle.
“The sake is delicious,” said Midori Okuzumi, 49, who traveled from eastern Tokyo with her husband, Hirokazu, for the celebrations.
“It’s a slight shame that the masu [wooden cups] ran out before our turn came, but it’s still tasty,” she said, clutching a small paper cup instead.
Office worker Kiyohiko Izawa, 28, and his wife Naoko, also 28, who works at a bank, visited the shrine to report their marriage to the Shinto gods.
“I’m happy that we were able to report our marriage on the first day of Reiwa,” Naoko said.
Later, archers on horseback dressed as ancient samurai warriors performed for an enthusiastic crowd, hitting their targets as they galloped over the lush shrine lawns.
“I’m very moved to watch this traditional event,” said Yasutaka Okamoto, 67, an office worker from western Tokyo.
The change of era is a huge event in Japan and several couples chose to get married on the stroke of midnight.
There were also long lines at post offices to get stamps bearing the first day of the Reiwa era and crowds scrambled to get rare special editions of newspapers commemorating the events outside mainline stations.
Some people went to extraordinary lengths to ring in the new era.
With early-morning clouds casting a shadow over the first sunrise, about 80 people paid for a specially chartered plane to soar above them to capture dawn breaking over the Japanese Alps.
“Although passengers could not see Mount Fuji due to bad weather, they were able to enjoy the first sunrise of Reiwa,” said Sho Inoue, an airline company spokesman.
About 370 people traveled to Nemuro on the island of Hokkaido, one of the easternmost points of Japan, in a bid to be the first to see the sunrise, but clouds cast a shadow on proceedings there.
Others went to watch the formal ceremony and Naruhito’s first speech on massive screens outside Shinjuku, the world’s busiest train station.
Gazing up at the screen, law student Mito Okuno, 21, said she had come from Himeji, about 600km to the west of Tokyo, to savor the historic moment.
Dressed in a striped orange, red and black kimono, Okuno said: “I am someone who loves history and what we are experiencing now will be talked about for a long time.”
“That’s why I wanted to come in person,” she added.
In the Tokyo neighborhood of Nakanobu, large crowds in traditional hanten dress paraded through the streets carrying an ornate golden shrine on their shoulders.
Naruhito officially became emperor at midnight and several hundred people braved torrential rain to cram into the famous “scramble” crossing at Shibuya to count down to the new era.
Tamae Moriyama, 48, a restaurant worker, said she hoped the historic events would spark a debate about women ascending the throne, which is forbidden.
“I hope that women will one day be able to take the throne like in Britain. I am happy that the subject is being debated. Times have changed but the imperial system has not changed with them,” she said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was