Japan -- History; Japan -- Politics and government
As to the titles by which the Emperor is known, these are drawn in
most part from the Chinese, and denote, in language suited to Oriental
ideas, the illustrious position which he holds. The names express
the idea that he reigns by divine right. The oldest of these titles
seems to be Mikoto. This is a Japanese word meaning “venerable,” and
translated into Chinese, “tsun.” The word Mikado is more commonly
used now, and is translated by the Chinese “Ti,” or emperor. The
word “O” or “Wo” is the Chinese “Wang,” emperor; and the word “ten,”
or heaven, is commonly added--“Ten wo,” the heavenly ruler; or the
combination “Owo,” or “Oho-wo,” meaning the great ruler, in which
sense “Dai-wo” is also used. “Tenshi” is the “tien-tsi” of China, the
son of heaven. “O-ooji,” the great family, is sometimes applied to
the Emperor. The common people talk of the Emperor as “Miyako sama,”
in contradistinction to “Yedo sama,” the Shiogoon, the Lord of Yedo.
“Ooyaysama,” or the superior lord, is also used. “Dairi,” made up of
two Chinese words signifying the inner court or “the interior,” is
equivalent to the words “the court” in English, and seems to include
the residences of the royal families and higher nobility. It is,
however, sometimes applied to the Emperor himself, and sometimes to the
palace as a building. The first word, “dai” is written both “great,”
_ta_, and “inner,” _nai_. The latter seems the more common. “Gosho” is
a word sometimes applied to the palace, at others to the Emperor and
the government. The word “in,” or “een,” is a Buddhist word, added to
the posthumous name of some of the deceased emperors instead of “Ten
wo.” In addition to these, other names are used, as “Kwo tei,” or ruler
of the people, “Chokku,” etc.
From the earliest period in the history of Japan, mention is made of
three things which necessarily appertain to the person who sits upon
the throne. They seem to be looked on as symbols of the imperial power,
as palladia of the empire. In one of the treatises upon the Emperor’s
court it is said of these mysterious emblems: “In that early time the
heaven-illuminating god arrived at Kashiwabarra, then the capital, and
placed an eight-cubit mirror and a grass-shaving sword in the palace,
on the throne of the Emperor, and these received such homage as was
rendered in the early times. The efficacy of the god was very great,
so that the Emperor, dwelling with this god (these divine symbols),
was, as it were, equal to a god. Within the palace these things were
laid up, that the divine power might remain wherever these things were.
At that time (two high officers) regulated the sacrificial rites and
ceremonies until the tenth emperor, who, fearing the sacredness of the
divine presence, took these two efficacious symbols, the sword and the
mirror, and put them away in another place, which was the origin of the
idea of the Emperor sitting like a god in the place of a god.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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