Sanshu no Shinki
THE
THREE SACRED TREASURES
Japanese Symbols of Government |
|
The Symbol of the
Empire |
The Achievement of State |
The Symbol of the
Emperor |
The Symbols of the Shoguns |
Sansu no Shinki,
the Three Sacred Treasures |
|
THE LEGEND Starting with the
Taika Reform Edicts of 645, Japanese intensified the adoption of Chinese
cultural practices and reorganized the government and the penal code in
accordance with the Chinese administrative structure (the Ritsuryo
state) of the time. This paved the way for the dominance of Confucian
philosophy in Japan until the 19th century. This period also saw the first
uses of the word Nihon as a name for the emerging state. In the Nara-period
(710-784) the mythology was made up legitimizing the power of the rulers and
the ruling family of Japan.
Legend wants that
the Sanshui-no-Shingi or Three Sacred Treasures, the Mirror, the Sword
and Jewel, without possession of which, according to the Imperial Household
Law, no member of the Imperial Family can legitimately ascend the throne of
Japan, are probably older than the Imperial House itself. They are supposed
to be the creations of the age of the ancestral gods, emblems of the all-powerful
deities which were transferred to the rulers of Japan, thus legitimizing
their power and for that reason have been carefully preserved troughout the
ages by the Imperial family. In the Three
Sacred Treasures we may notice the symbols for the administrative, the armed
and the religious authorities, making the authority of the state. Of this
state the Japanese emperor was, at least formally, the head. The three symbols
were sometimes combined in a mon and this mon has to be considered as
the possible though hypothetical state symbol of ancient Japan. After the
Meiji revolution the idea was not followed and the symbol of state has become
a mirror charged with a sun in splendour, a symbol meaning “the
Administration of the Empire” and representing the administration as a
reflection of the empire. |
ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLS. Each of the three symbols has a
legendary origin and a specific history of its own. The legend runs as
follows: At the dawn of the national life the
Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, had occasion to reprove het brother
Susa-no-Wo-no-Mikoto (His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness), for his
destroying en befauling her works….. The 8th century Koj-iki continues:
Hereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August
deity was greatly amazed, and, slightly opening the door of the Heavenly
Rock-Dwelling, spoke thus from the inside: "Methought that owing to my
retirement the Plain of Heaven would be dark, and likewise the Central Land
of Reed-Plains would all be dark: how then is it that the
Heavenly-Alarming-Female makes merry, and that likewise the eight hundred
myriad deities all laugh? Then the Heavenly-Alarming-Female spoke, saying:
“We rejoice and are glad because there is a deity more illustrious than Thine
Augustness.” While she was thus speaking, His Augustness
Heavenly-Beckoning-Ancestor-Lord and His Augustness Grand-Jewel pushed
forward the mirror and respectfully showed it to the
Heaven-Shining-Great-August deity, whereupon the Heaven-Shining-Great-August
deity, more and more astonished, gradually came forth from the door and gazed
upon it, whereupon the Heavenly-Hand-Strength-Male deity, who was standing
hidden, took her august hand and drew her out, and then His Augustness
Grand-Jewel drew the bottom-tied rope along at her august back, and spoke,
saying: “Thou must not go back further in than this”! So when the
Heaven-Shining-Great-August deity had come forth, both the Plain of High
Heaven and the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains of course again became light. |
THE SWORD (TSURUGI) The sword, according to the
Koj-iki, is supposed to be of a different origin:
So, having been expelled,
His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness descended to a place called Tori-kami at
the headwaters of the River Hi in the Land of Idzumo. At this time some
chopsticks came floating down the stream. So His
Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness, thinking that there must be people at the
head-waters of the river, went up it in quest of them, when he came upon an
old man and an old woman - two of them - who had a young girl between them,
and were weeping. Then he deigned to ask: “Who are ye?” So the old man
replied, saving: “I am an Earthly deity, child of the deity
Great-Mountain-Possessor. I am called by the name of Foot-Stroking-Elder, my
wife is called by the name of Hand-Stroking-Elder, and my daughter is called
by the name of Wondrous-Inada-Princess.” Again he asked: “What is the cause
of your crying?” The old man answered, saying: “I had originally eight young
girls as daughters. But the eight-forked serpent of Koshi has come every year
and devoured one, and it is now its time to come, wherefore we weep.” Then he
asked him: “What is its form like?” The old man answered, saving: “Its eyes
are like akakagachi, it has one body with eight heads and eight tails.
Moreover, on its body grows moss, and also chamaecyparis and cryptomerias.
Its length extends over eight valleys and eight hills, and if one look at its
belly, it is all constantly bloody and inflamed.” (What is called here akakagachi
is the modern hohodzuki.) Then His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augstness
said to the old man: "If this be thy daughter, wilt thou offer her to
me?” He replied, saying: “With reverence, but I know not thine august
name.”Then be replied, saying: I am elder brother to the
Heaven-Shining-Great-August deity. So I have now descended from Heaven.” Then
the deities Foot-Stroking-Elder and Hand-Stroking-Elder said: “If that be so,
with reverence will we offer her to thee.” So
His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness, at once taking and |
THE TRANSFER OF THE
THREE SACRED TREASURES Nininigi-no-Mikoto, grandson of
Amaterasu Omokami, was sent to earth to govern the land and to establish an
Imperial capital. From the Sun Goddess herself he received the Mirror, as the
incarnation of her spirit, and was thus admonished: “Whenever you gaze upon this, the
Sacred Mirror, you will find it holy, and must therefore reverently worship
it, keeping it beside your couch and in the privacy of your chamber.” The Three Sacred Treasures were
transferred to Jimmu Tenno, first of the Imperial line, who ascended the
throne in 660 BC. (i.e. 40-10 BC). The Emperor conquered the land, subduing
refractory tribes, and he established his capital at Kashiwabara, where the
Treasures were deposited, becoming objects of great reverence to the people. During the reign of Sujin, the
tenth Emperor (230-258) replicas were made of the Mirror and Sword; these
were kept in the palace, the originals being deposited at Kasanui, in the
province of Yamato, where they were enshrined. The reason for this was the
fear that the sublimity of the Treasures would be tarnished by exposure to
the vulgar gaze. An Imperial Princess, Toyosuki Iri-hime, was appointed
priestess-in-charge of the shrine, and commanded to guard the treasures with
her life. In the reign of Suinin, the
eleventh ruler, the Mirror and the Sword were again removed, this time to
Ise, and again an Imperial Princess, Yamato-hime-no-Mikoto, was appointed
their guardian. Here a shrine was built, dedicated to the spirit of Amaterasu
Omikami, the Sun Goddess, which is today the Great Shinto Shrine of Ise. |
THE THREE SACRED TREASURES IN HISTORY. The legends in the Kojiki (The Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720) thus prove that the Three Sacred Treasures were at least existant at
the dawn of the Nara Period. They appear in history more than threehundred
years after the reign of Ojin (362-394) the first emperor of which it is
certain that he really existed. Later historic records reveal that
the Mirror has more than once been damaged by fire and that it hardly survived the Heian Period
(781-1185). In 960, the fourth month, it suffered a palace fire; while in
1005, the eleventh month, it was almost totally destroyed, only a small part,
says the record, remaining. A third fire, in 1040, so damaged the Mirror that
it was reduced to fragments, and it is these that are now in the Kashiko-dokoro,
the original being in the Great Shrine of Ise. At the battle of Dannoura, in 1185, when the young
Emperor Antoku lost his life, replicas of the Sacred Treasures came near
being lost. The Mirror and Jewel were in a box, and the enemy, the Genji,
were anxious to see them and to secure them. They seized the casket and
openend it, when the flashing of the Mirror was so intense that they were
blinded and driven mad. Temporarily the Jewel was lost, but it was found in
its box floating on the sea, and was restored to the succeeding Emperor.
Similarly, the replica of the Sword was lost when the Taira were
exterminated, and this has never been recovered. A second replica was made,
and a third, which was offered to the Emperor from the province of Ise. This
still remains as the subsitute of the original replica lost in the battle of
.Dannoura. During the brief er of the rival
Imperial Courts in the fourteenth century, when the Northern and Southern
courts strove for supremacy, the control of the Sacred Treasures became the
object of conflict, since true sovereignty went with their possessor. The
Emperor Go-Daigo (1318-1339) was banished to the remote island of Oki, in the
Japan Sea. After the establishment of the Hokucho, or Northern Court (1336),
the regent Hojo Takatoki demanded that the exiled ruler transfer the sacred
emblems to the Emperor Kōgōn (1331-1333, † 1364), first of the Hokucho Emperors. Go-Daigo, however, surrendered only the replicas and
when he returned, as he did soon afterwards, he brought the Treasures with
him. The first Ashikaga Shogun (Ashikaga Takauji 1338-’58) was similarly
deceived. It was in the reign of Go-Kameyama
(1383-1392), of the Southern Court, that the unification of the rival Courts
was agreed upon.This being accomplished the Treasures were surrendered and
restored to the newly-proclaimed Emperor Go-Komatsu (1382-1412) on October 5th
1392. The shrine of the Mirror was built
close to the Isuzu River. Atsuta, the home of the magic Sword is also near
rivers that flow to the low-lying sea-coast. [2] |
The present three
Sacred Treasures and Imperial Regalia. The three sacred treasures legitimate the authority
of the imperial throne and are said to symbolize the virtues of wisdom,
courage, and benevolence. |
Yata-no-Kagami Mirrors
with a polished surface on one side and cosmic symbols on the other side are intermediaries
connecting the individual and the cosmos. Such mirrors are known from the end
of the Warring States Period in China (475-221 BC) and were used until the
Q’ing-dynasty (1644). They were given to civil servants at the Emperors
birthday. The oldest ones just show a circular pattern that can be
interpreted as a sun. Younger specimen show a sun in the form of a semisphere
in the middle, surrounded by figures symbolizing heaven. Sometimes the
figures are abstract and show a compass-card
with the eight directions of the wind. On others the sun is surrounded
with the twelve signs of the zodiac. From about the Han Dynasties (207 B.C. -
220 AD) the four wind directions are symbolized by a tortoise for the North,
a dragon for the East, a phoenix for the South and a tiger for the West. In the Tang dynasty (618-907) these symbols
were reduced to one or two dragons, the combination of dragons and The
Japanese Sacred Mirror as illustrated here is of a type common in the Eastern
Han period (25-220 AD). It shows a sun and an eight directions-symbol.
However we can not be sure this is the original mirror or one of its replica´s.
Kusanagi-no-tsurugi is actually called Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi
(litt. “Sword of gathering clouds of heaven") but it is more popularly
called Kusanagi (lit. “grasscutter” or more probably “sword of snake”). It
may also be called Tsumugari no Tachi (都牟刈の太刀). The actual Kusanagi, if it exists, is
likely to be a sword of the Roman spatha-type which is typically
double-edged, short and straight; very different from the more recent katana
backsword style. This kind of sword is not depicted in Japanese mon-art.
In crests a broad, double edged blade of Chinese origin was depicted. Magatama, are curved beads which first appeared in Japan during the Jomon
period, around circa 1000 BCE and in Korea (where they are called Gogok or
Kokkok) during the Prehistoric period, mainly in the Bronze Age and
Neolithic. They are often found inhumed in mounded tumulus graves as offerings to
deities. They continued to be popular with the ruling elites throughout the
Kofun Period of Japan, and are often romanticised as indicative of the Yamato
Dynasty of Japan. Some consider them to be an Imperial symbol, although in
fact ownership was widespread throughout all the chieftainships of Kofun
Period Japan. It is believed that magatama were popularly worn as
jewels for decoration, in addition to their religious meanings. In this
latter regard they were later largely replaced by Buddhist
prayer beads in the Nara period. In modern Japan, the magatama's shape of a sphere with a
flowing tail is still the usual visual representation of the human spirit (hitodama).
Wearing one during life is considered a way of gaining protections from kami. |
© Hubert de Vries 06.03.2007
[1] The
Kojiki. Translated by B.H. Chamberlain,
1882 Part III. Amaterasu, the
sun-goddess, and the storm-god. See:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kojiki.htm
[2] Tarao,
Hanso: Symbols of Sovereignty are Treasured Gifts from Sun Goddess. In:
Enthronement of the one hundreth twenty-fourth Emperor of Japan. Tokyo, 1928.
Pp. 63-65.