Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
7 - The Japanese Imperial Cult
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
The history of imperial Japan is dominated by the Yamato Clan, which has continued as rulers longer than any other ruling dynasty. It is enhanced by an added prehistoric mythology that supports their authority and position. It provides, however, an unqualified paradigm of fictional history, fabricated power. His Imperial Majesty Naruhito, who assumed his position in April 2019, is the 126th emperor of Japan in a dynasty alleged to date to at least the seventh century BCE. According to a largely invented history, the status of Japanese emperors as divine, which has continued until the present, has origins before the invention of writing. Thus the royal family is alleged to have originated in a time so remote that no reliable records of any kind could possibly exist. It is this absence of historical records that allowed the Yamato Clan to assert its antiquity and thus lay claim to be the oldest genealogical kingship still in existence.
With this prehistoric fiction added to the historical record, the myth of imperial divinity lasted until the end of World War II when the crushing defeat of Japan brought an end to decades of empire building and atrocities throughout the region. Hirohito, emperor since 1926, had been a driving force behind conquests through East and Southeast Asia, but he was stripped of all power in the aftermath of the war and forced to admit he was not divine. But the symbolism was not so easily eliminated. A cult of imperial worship of more than a hundred earlier emperors continues in Shinto temples across the countryside. Thus, despite the loss of divine status and government power more than seven decades ago, Hirohito's grandson Naruhito remains a symbol of an imperial cult that has outlasted all other earthly versions. And Naruhito still considers himself divine and seems to be viewed this way because an elaborate narrative embedded so deeply in Japanese culture supersedes history that is soon forgotten. But an examination of its foundations reveals a more limited monarchic history. Its centuries of invented emperors have effectively enhanced the Yamato Clan, which rose to power much later than it claims.
The genesis of the Japanese people entails a complex mixture of strands from prehistoric migrations over many millennia. Human remains in caves in Japan indicate a Homo sapiens presence by 32,000 to 27,000 BCE, and thus an indigenous foundational population of foragers and hunters.
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- Information
- Invented History, Fabricated PowerThe Narratives Shaping Civilization and Culture, pp. 79 - 90Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020