to be held by the military. Therefore, you could assume that the environment of the “puppet” government was already established during Taisho Period.
Going back to Origuchi’s theory about “Tama,” his theory is completely contradictory. According to his theory, the enthronement ceremony was about inheriting the first Tenno, Jinmu’s “Tama, or soul.” If Origuchi’s theory were to be squarely accepted, should the crown prince’s Tama itself be gotton rid of him? Then, what would become of the crown prince’s soul which he has had since he was born? Origuchi did not touch on this part at all.
He meant, should the crown prince experience pseudo death?
Contrary to Origuchi’s theory, Nihon-Sho-Ki told the story about one Tenno, who was killed by a messenger of Amaterasu-Oh-Mi-Kami, the greatest deity in the Firmament, who controls law, reason and order of the world of Shinto. According to this story, Tenno’s wife became a medium of Amaterasu’s messenger and she told Amaterasu’s order to the Tenno. The Tenno doubted the authenticity of the messenger. Amaterasu-Oh-Mi-Kami was furious at his doubt, and instantly killed the Tenno. The Tenno who was killed was Chuai Tenno, who was the 14th Emperor in Japanese history. If Tama, as Origuchi pointed out, were the Tama of Tenno, it would be impossible for Amaterasu’s messenger to kill him because Amaterasu-Oh-Mi-Kami bestowed Tenno with her Tama. There was no story that Amaterasu gave her Tama to Tenno.
From the story above, anyone could assume that Origuchi’s thesis contradicted the story in Nihon-Shoo-Ki. In spite of this contradiction, Dr. Origuchi gained popularity among Shinto researchers as well as the Military Regime of the Japanese Empire. I wonder why almost no Shinto researchers at major universities have had any doubt or questions about Origuchi’s theory.
Basic Principles of Ruling Yamato Kingdom
Among the ceremonies for the enthronement of newly succeeded Tenno, Dajo-Sai rituals have come to have the most important meaning. Daijo-Sai is the ceremony that Tenno-to-be has newly harvested rice in the temporary palaces that were built of the ceremonies. After these ceremonies, the sure-to-be Tenno will be an authentic Tenno.
The very basic principle ruling systems existed in the ancient Yamato Kingdom before the Tempyo Kingdom (729-794). Yamato Kingdom was a kind of united tribal kingdom. Each tribal group had their own deities. Only the leaders of each tribe could serve their own deities. The interesting fact was even Tenno had no right to serve rituals for the deity of other tribes.
Nihon-Sho-Ki described the story of Tenno in the ancient era. At that time, the Tenno, Sujin Tenno, conquered the other tribes’ territories. However, his military troops were in great trouble and the territory itself became severely devastated. Tenno was deeply worried about the situation, so he asked his media to find out the reason. An unknown deity appeared in his dream and said, “I’m a deity of this land, but my folk who had served me scattered away, so no one offers prayer to me. That is why I am haunting this land. This is the reason of this disaster.”
After knowing this fact, the Tenno tried to serve the deity himself in vain. The deity reappeared and asked the Tenno to find out the true successor of the chieftain of the land. The Tenno at last found out his successor, Taneko Ohta, and asked him to offer rituals. After the ceremony, Tenno’s troops recovered again and the land became rich.
The rule of holding the rituals for deities was that the ruler of the tribes could only hold their ancestor deities. The interesting fact is Tenno has no authority to serve for deities who belong to other tribes. The ruler of the tribes served for their ancestor deities. This, at the same time, means Tenno can only serve for Amaterasu-Oh-Mi-Kami and Susano-O-no-Mikoto and various direct ancestor deities
Among serving ancestry deities, Daijo-Sai is a ceremony. Daijo-Sai is held only for the succession of Tenno. It was held in November in Japan. According to the current rule after the Meiji Restoration, the timing of the Daijo-Sai depends on when the former Emperor passed away. I would like to explain how Daijo-Sai, one of the enthronement ceremonies, is held in the later chapter. Daijo-Sai has a lot to do with rice harvest, which is, in a way, a little like Thanksgiving in the United States. However, as the social structure and origin is different in either culture, it is impossible to say that Daijo-Sai and Thanksgiving are similar.
Daijo-Sai, has a very important meaning and is related to Japanese national character. Rice has been the most important food for Japanese people for over a thousand years. The stories of the birth of rice and grains are written in one of the oldest historical literatures, Kojiki (712 A.D), the literature of old events based on the oral history, and Nihon-Sho-Ki (completed in720), the oldest government-sponsored historical documents of Japan.
The rituals of Daijo-Sai lasted for months depending on when the Emperor passed down his throne to his successor before the Meiji Restoration, because they had to wait for rice harvest. Throughout Japanese history, in many cases, Tenno’s throne was often given to the next Tenno, while the former Tenno was still alive. However, Dr. Origuchi insisted, “Tenno succeeds to Tenno’s position after the former Tenno passed away. Tama, which the former Tenno possessed in his flesh, should be transplanted into the newly succeeded Tenno’s flesh.” This idea is obviously reflected in the materialistic world view.
Chuai Tenno’s Queen Jingu Kogo, evoked her Tamas, when she was in trouble on the Japan Sea. Her Tamas appeared from the bottom of the deep sea, not from her body, and saved her and all of her troops. After that, her Tamas returned to the bottom of the sea. This story tells you that Tama belonged to the Underworld, which is the territory of Susano-O. She evoked many Tama. The important point is her Tama were not in her flesh.
Origuchi seemed to have mixed up Tama with Tama-shi-Hi, a soul. He defined Tama as Tama-shi-Hi. As you know, Tama-shi-Hi, a soul, is in every human’s flesh. Tenno is also not an exception. Tama must be strictly distinguished from Tama-shi-Hi. I will explain this Tama-shi-Hi later.
From Armchair Anthropology to Fieldwork Studies
Going back to Dr. Shinobu Origuchi’s theory, now everybody could understand apparently that Dr. Shinobu Origuchi confused Tama with Tama-shi-Hi, a soul. One main clue, which led Dr. Origuchi to his theory, was the famous Study, “Golden Bough,” based on the data of the Shilluk tribal kingdom, written by Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941), a famous British anthropologist. The Shilluk Kingdom was located in the southern Sudan area called Nuer Land. In the “Golden Bough,” Frazer introduced the custom of execution of the king in the tribe as part of the customs of Shilluk Kingdom.
According to Frazer, every king was killed when he became sick or weak and was unable to maintain his sexual life with his wives, who were offered by the tribes who were interested in becoming the relatives of the king, because the king’s weakness led to the collapse of the kingdom. In this context, after the former king was killed, his successor could be a king.
Origuchi’s problem was that he adopted Frazer’s idea of the succession to the throne in the Shilluk Kingdom to the Tenno system. Origuchi clearly mentioned, “A new Emperor succeeds to his throne after the former Emperor died.” However, the custom of succeeding to throne after the death of proceding Tenno was adopted after the Meiji Restoration, imitating the system of the Tokugawa Shogunate Regime.
Looking into the Japanese History, the position of Tenno was succeeded to regardless of Tenno being alive or dead. You could assume that Dr. Origuchi might have made up the story that Tenno’s own soul was gotten rid of by Tama, referring to Sir James George Frazer’s murder of Shilluk Kingdom.
By the way, the theory written by Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) was later completely denied by Sir Edward Evans Prichard (1902-1973), who was also a British anthropologist and the professor of Oxford University (Please refer to “Social Anthropology and Other Essays”-1965 Oxford Press). He criticized Sir Frazer’s theory of the Shilluk Kingdom as completely imaginary and not scientific. Sir Edward Evans Prichard scientifically analyzed the structure of the society of the Shilluk