Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/207

 otaphs, praying for the happiness of his people and the peace of his reign. On the third of the same month, the Imperial ancestors and the deities of heaven and earth are again worshipped, and petitions, now more particularly connected with the tranquillity and prosperity of the reign, are addressed to these supernatural guardians, in a ceremonial called the Genshi-sai (festival of the beginning); the significance being that the new year's work of administration commences with worship. On the eleventh of the second month the Kigen-setsu (memorial of the origin) is held, to commemorate the accession of the first mortal Emperor, Jimmu. On the seventeenth of the tenth month, the first rice of the year, and sakê brewed from it, are offered to the Sun Goddess, the ceremony being called Kanname (divine tasting). On the twenty-third of the eleventh month, a similar rite — the Niiname (new tasting) — is performed, the difference being that the first fruits are now offered to all the deities. The birthday of the Emperor himself is also celebrated, and four solemn mourning services are performed, one on the anniversary (thirtieth January) of the death of the late Emperor (Kōmei); the second on that (third April) of the death of the first Emperor (Jimmu); the third and fourth in memory of all the Imperial ancestors. These two last are called Shunki-kōrei-sai (worship of the Imperial spirits at the vernal equinox), and Shiuki-kōrei-sai (worship of the Imperial spirits at