The Daijōsai (affiliate link!) (大嘗祭) is a sacred ceremony performed on the accession of a new Tennō, in which that new Tennō offers rice and other food to the kami in specially built ritual buildings. The linked essay has a lot more detail about the ceremony in general. In this post, I want to write about an article in issue 274 of The Journal of Shintō Studies (神道宗教), “Emperor Sutoku’s Daijōsai Ceremony as Recorded in Hosshōjidono on-shidai: An Analysis of the Comments Concerning Rites Preceding the Main Rite”, by Kimura Daiki (木村大樹).
The Hosshōjidono on-shidai is one of two records from the early twelfth century that go into a lot of detail about the Daijōsai. They were written by the regent at the time, who was responsible for much of the ceremony as the new Tennō was only four years old when it was performed. One of the documents is the regent’s notes on what was done in the past and what should be done, while the other is his record of what actually happened. It is famous for including things like “And then His Imperial Majesty threw a tantrum and we had to get his wet nurse to comfort him” or “And then His Imperial Majesty fell asleep, and so I had to complete the ceremony”. The article is largely based on the record of what was supposed to be done, and, as the title suggests, it looks at the instructions for the ritual purification of the Tennō before the ceremonies, and for the procession from the purification chamber to the ritual chamber.
Kimura notes that the instructions for the purification are much more detailed and precise than those for the procession. The purification instructions detail, for example, how the hot and cold water should be poured into the bath, how many times they should be stirred, and with which hand. The procession gives a list of people in order, with comments on what they should be carrying.
I do not have space here to go into all the details, but one point was particularly interesting. The regent drew on several earlier records of the Daijōsai (none of which survive independently, to the best of my knowledge), and noted that they do not always agree on what should be done. For example, sources disagree about whether the water in the bath should be stirred with the right or left hand, and even about whether the Tennō should get into the bath, or just be splashed with the water while standing next to it. In either case, it seems that he was supposed to be dressed in ritual clothing at the time. The regent’s notes go as far as saying that one Tennō disagreed with another as to what should be done, and giving the grounds for the disagreement.
The text also includes records of what actually happened on certain occasions (like someone forgetting their sword), with notes about things that were mistakes, and comments that, for example, it was not good that there was only one person going ahead of the Tennō in the procession.
This clearly shows that there was no authoritative “order of service” for the Daijōsai. This fits with the standard pattern for Japanese court ritual in this period, as I understand it, which was that people followed precedent rather than a set of written rules. Thus, the notes describing something as a mistake or not good are saying that, although it happened, it should not be imitated in the future.
In addition, it demonstrates that people got things wrong, even in this ceremony. It is only performed once per reign, and one person is only likely to serve at it once in a lifetime, even if several happen (in the twelfth century, Tennō often reigned for less than ten years before abdicating). Thus, no-one involved is used to it, and so they forget which hand to use to stir the water. The recorded prayers for the ceremony even include a bit saying “please overlook any bits we got wrong”.
This should be reassuring for modern visitors to jinja — if you accidentally bow once, clap once, and bow twice (rather than bow twice, clap twice, bow once), you are simply part of an ancient Shinto tradition of getting things wrong.