On April 30, 2019, the Japanese emperor, Emperor Akihito, announced to abdicate at the age of 85, and on the next day, May 1, 2019, his son ascended to the throne and became Emperor Naruhito for the new Reiwa era of Japan. Six months later, in November, the enthronement became a national hot topic again as a great celebration of Emperor Naruhito\u2019s enthronement (\u5929\u7687\u965b\u4e0b\u5fa1\u5373\u4f4d\u3092\u304a\u795d\u3044\u3059\u308b\u56fd\u6c11\u796d\u5178) took place on November 9 in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event began with an opening-up parade of marching bands and folk performers from all over Japan. In the evening, the ceremonial part during which the Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako appeared began. More than 30,000 people attended the celebration. Besides the attendants who were invited as celebrities and media professionals, there were ten thousand seats open to public participants. According to the organizers, more than 470,000 members of the public had applied online for the 10,000 tickets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suite \u201cRay of Water,\u201d composed specially for the occasion, was performed by an orchestra for the Emperor and Empress. Several top Japanese artists were invited to perform the third movement of the suite, a song wrote for the Emperor. It was featured by the pianist Nobuyuki Tsuji and pop idol group Arashi. The song \u201cJourney to Harmony\u201d sang: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you smile, the world shines<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone\u2019s happiness illuminates the present<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our rejoicing will reach you <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s okay, the birds are singing It\u2019s okay, the sky is glittering<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s okay, the water is flowing It\u2019s okay, the ocean is shining<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s okay, we will smile with you It\u2019s okay, we will walk forward with you<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lyrics expressed people\u2019s love and respect to the Emperor as well as the outlook to a peaceful future. Empress Masako was witnessed wiping her tears when the song finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song remained a spotlight for days in Japan; not only because it was sung by the top Japanese idols, but more importantly, it revealed people\u2019s shared expectation to the new era. The current era name \u201cReiwa (\u4ee4\u548c)\u201d was derived from Japan\u2019s oldest known poetry anthology \u201cManyoshu<\/em>\u201d (\u4e07\u8449\u96c6). The original text read as \u201cshoshun no reigetsu ni shite, kiyoku kaze yawaragi<\/em>,\u201d depicting the harmonic and peaceful image in the early spring. The Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe interpreted Reiwa\u2019s ideology of harmony that \u201cculture is born and grows when people come together and care for each other beautifully.\u201d The new emperor of Reiwa era, Emperor Naruhito, did not merely serve as the symbol and face of Japan; widely loved by his people, he was expected to bring some peaceful time to Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although for outsiders, era names did not seem to mean as much except to indicate dividing points of Japanese traditional calendar, they actually contributed to many Japanese people\u2019s sense of identity. In Japan, titles such as \u201cShowa Sedai<\/em> (Showa Generation)\u201d and \u201cHeisei Umare<\/em> (Born-in-Heisei)\u201d were used to define and distinguish different generations, and people themselves identified with these titles as well. In Natsume Soseki\u2019s novel Kokoro<\/em>, for example, \u201cmy\u201d father tied his identity to the Meiji era so much that he believed Meiji era was part of himself. As a result, when the Meiji era ended, he became seriously sick and finally passed away too. Though people would not go to such extreme in today\u2019s Japanese society, the tradition of holding a sense of connection to their<\/em> eras was maintained. Reiwa, for many Japanese people, is much more than a simple title. Speaking in the first years of this new era, Reiwa creates a sense of Japanese identity; it serves as a synonym of people\u2019s sincere hope for a peaceful life; it represents a generation\u2019s present and future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On April 30, 2019, the Japanese emperor, Emperor Akihito, announced to abdicate at the age of 85, and on the next day, May 1, 2019, his son ascended to the throne and became Emperor Naruhito for the new Reiwa era of Japan. Six months later, in November, the enthronement became a national hot topic again […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-2020"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/lotus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}