Symbolic night: Naruhito (centre) walking towards Sukiden, one of two main halls at the shrine for Daijosai, or great thanksgiving festival, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. — AP
TOKYO: In the chill pre-dawn hours, Japan’s Emperor Naruhito emerged from a shrine compound where he had spent a symbolic night with the sun goddess from whom conservatives believe his family descends, completing the rituals of his accession.
The “Daijosai” rite, centred on the goddess Amaterasu Omikami, began soon after sunset on Thursday and is the most overtly religious of all the rituals around Naruhito’s succession after his father, Akihito, abdicated in April.
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