#RoyalFlashback- Emperor Akihitos’s Daijō-sai (the Great Thanksgiving Festival) at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in 1990: #JapanEnthronement https://t.co/7PIJX5G1VY pic.twitter.com/gVGjVwkKPG

— The Royal Watcher (@saadsalman719) November 13, 2019

Emperor Naruhito will participate in the Daijō-sai (大嘗祭), the Great Thanksgiving Festival, in which the emperor is united to the sun-goddess Amaterasu, the third and most important of the Enthronement rituals later today, so we are taking a look at Emperor Akihito’s Daijō-sai Ceremony in 1990, in the temporary Daijokyu, specially built in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The Emperor sat in the direction of Ise Jingu, a shrine in Mie Prefecture that is said to enshrine the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu, the mythical ancestress of the imperial family. He offered newly harvested rice and grain to imperial ancestors and deities of heaven and earth, before partaking of the grain, and praying for peace and abundant harvests for the country and its people. The Ceremony was followed by three banquets and a visit to the shrines of his ancestors.