When the Japanese Emperor was considered divine, did he do anything godly?

Factual Questions
1

Did the Japanese people, or at least some of them, believe that the Emperor had divine powers prior to the end of WWII? I’m in the midst of reading several books on Japanese history in the 20th Century, and on more than a few occasions I have come across descriptions of ordinary Japanese saying morning prayers to the emperor. Was he expected to hear and answer them, or was he considered a divinity without godlike powers?
It may be a Western conceit on my part, but praying to a god who can’t help you out seems a bit odd - it would make more sense to pray to a god with some pull.

Sua

2

Japanese religion and Western Christianity are sort of like comparing apples with fish. You can eat both of them, but the similarities end pretty quickly.

The emperor was considered to be divine, but I don’t think anyone prayed to him per se. If you were Buddhist, the concept of a big divine overseeing god, isn’t an option. If you’re Shinto, your religion is very personal.

I doubt you could go to Kyoto and ask the Mikado to walk on water for you or stuff like that.

Since few people in Japan ever saw the emperor or let alone know his name, it was hard to build up a big cult for the emperor.

However, I am far from an expert on this topic and I know others on this board are.

3

The Emperor is head of the Shinto church, and presumably, as the earthly representative of the Sun Goddess Ameterasu who created the world, is responsible for protecting all life on earth. So he is presumably responsible for godly intervention in the affairs of man, like the divine wind that destroyed the Mongol fleet attempting to invade Japan. Yeah right.
In practical terms, the modern Emperor has strictly ceremonial duties. It might amuse you to know that a newly enthroned Emperor’s first duty is to visit the Shinto shrine at Ise, where the 3 treasures of the Emperor’s family are kept (a mirror, a bead, and something else I forgot), perform a secret ritual with them, and then plant cannabis seedlings.

4

[hijack]

That third item is a sword. All of the sacred items are something like 2500 years old, known as the Sanshu no jingi, (which I think translates into “the nine months” or “the three months of autumn”). The weapon in particular has supposedly suffered severely from millenia of overpolishing to the point where it resembles a piece of driftwood.

Here in DC, we had the unique opportunity to see some of the other personal holdings of the Emperors during a brief exhibit at the Sackler Gallery, where I worked at the time. It was insane. Perfectly preserved caligraphy and art from something like 900 A.D. onward, some of them depicting contemporary events such as the Mongol invasion.

Oddly, we were told that these treasures would likely go straight back into the vaults once they returned to Japan (with another stop in Los Angeles), unseen by the Japanese people. There they might remain, unseen, for another thousand years. Crazy, man.

[/hijack]

5

The Emperor used to make the sun come up - that’s pretty divine.

People today don’t feel it’s necessary to pray for that all the time anymore, so as requests dropped off, the Japanese handed over control of the sun to an aboriginal shaman in Australia.

6

Oh man, when was that exhibit at the Sackler? Is there a catalog still available? If I’d known of the exhibit, I surely would have travelled to see it.
BTW, you might enjoy the book “Lost Japan” by Alex Kerr. It is the story of his life as an art collector in Japan. There is one exceptionally interesting story that your comment reminds me of.
Kerr described hiking with some friends to a remote mountain village temple, where he had arranged overnight accommodations during his travels. When he arrived, the Abbot came and said, “what an auspicious day for you to have come, you must see our famous buddha statue!” Instead of following the Abbot’s advice, he rested and washed up, and then went to the Abbot and asked to see the statue. He was told that the statue was only on view until sundown and had just been closed, and furthermore, this particular statue was only exhibited for ONE DAY every 100 YEARS, and he had just missed it. Even the Abbot had seen the statue for the first time in his life, that very day. Kerr felt terrible for missing it, and deliberately did not tell his fellow travellers of the situation, so they never knew what he missed. But HE knew, and he finally decided that it was better for him NOT to have seen the statue. If he’d seen it, he would have just thought, “eh, another butsuzou.” But since he just MISSED seeing it, the statue has haunted him for his entire life. The act of NOT seeing the statue was much more powerful than the experience of seeing it ever could have been.
Anyway, sorry to prolong this thread hijack, but I’m glad you did.

7

You might try starting with this link, Chas.

http://www.si.edu/sipress/catalog/12cent.htm

It was in early 1998. Interestingly, the book is expressly not for sale in Japan. For awhile, I used to use the dang books as tables, to hold up other merch at the store. I gave my own last copy away to a proud New Zealand mum who was giving her son away in Canada, so I don’t have one, either.

The printing specifications were closely dictated by the handlers of the collection, and we actually ran out of copies while the exhibit was still showing, but a late run came in just at the end of the exhibition. Los Angeles had pissed us off by buying up our print run, and we weren’t about to flow our extras to them, so there may still be a few left at either the Sackler or the Freer Gallery shops.

8

And all my books are upstairs in the attic, but let’s see how close I can get.

The divinity of the Imperial line of Japan descends via their ancestor, Jimmu Tenno, the first (semi-mythical) Emperor of Japan. He was the grandson of Amaterasu-no-Mikoto, the Sun Goddess and came to power around 660-600 BCE, during the Jomon period.

The divinity of the Emperor was certainly played up during the war by the expansonistic and rabidly xenophobic military sects. Their attempts to purge Shinto of any aspect of foreign influence went very deep, but the actual divinity of the Emperor was much less than what Wester tradition would view as a diety. At most, the prayers directed to the Emperor were intercessory in nature, not an attempt for him to use a supernatural power to directly effect the physical world.

[minor digression]
The Imperial Treasures, as mentioned, consist of the Mirror, the Jewel and the Sword. The Mirror comes from the time that Amaterasu was teased and taunted by Susanos, God of Oceans and Storms. She shut herself up in a cave, plunging the earth into darkness. The other gods/goddesses hung a mirror on a tree branch outside the cave opening and lured her her towards the opening with what can only be described as a burlesque show. When she saw the glow of her reflection in the mirror, she came (or was dragged) out into the open. Susanos was tortured and banished, falling to earth. He found a serpent and killed it, heroically saving a maiden in distress in the process. While cutting out the tail, he found a beautiful sword, Kusanagi No Tsurugi which means “grass parting two-edged straight blade”. The sword was given as a gift to Amaterasu.
I believe that one of Amaterasu’s descendents is given two precious jewels in an underwater adventure, which completes the acquisition of the Imperial Treasures.

The Treasures were placed in the safe-keeping of Jimmu-Tenno as the symbols of his office. Traditionally, the mirror is in the Ise Shrine of Amaterasu, the jewels are in the Imperial Household of the Palace in Tokyo, and the sword is resides at the Atsuta Shrine at Nagoya.

As to where the sword actually is now, that’s a little more of a mystery. The last time it was actually seen was in 1168 AD, at the time of the Battle of Dan-no-Ura, the last battle during the Heike wars between the Tiara and the Minamoto. The Tiara Emperor Antoku drowned, taking the sword with him. The Emperor Sujin did have replicas of the Mirror and Sword made sometime during his reign. The descendents of the Tiara claimed that since the original went down with the Emperor, all subsequent Emperors have been enthroned improperly. The Minamoto argued that the original was still in the Atsuta Shrine adn that the duplicate went down. Although supported by the following Emperors, they were completely dominated by the Minamoto clan and had no actual freedom of decision. Most historians feel that it was the original that went down and the duplicate remains in Shrine.
[/minor digression]

Okay, okay, so it was a major digression.

9

hey thanks for the link, sofa king. I can’t believe it, now that I see the cover, I realize that I actually held this book in my hand when I visited the bookstore at LACMA a year or so ago, and almost bought it. But one of the museum curators told me I should order it from the Sackler, because LACMA charged much more than the Sackler did. Hmm…