"Showa"

Twenty millions of dollars have been spent to enable His Majesty the Tenno Hirohito to assume, through weeks of gorgeous pageantry, his full imperial station (TIME, Nov. 12, 19). Though the Emperor of Japan has no crown, the pageant was equivalent to a coronation. A concluding event last week was a review in Tokyo Bay of the Japanese Grand Fleet by the Emperor and Empress. Conspicuously in the Imperial suite stood Admiral Togo, great, venerable, famed. Proudly the small spectacled Tenno, whom Japanese adore as the Son of Heaven, surveyed the long, grim, double file of his grey war boats. This was his day of might! With the plain wooden paddle which is his simple sceptre, Emperor Hirohito now rules the third greatest naval power in the world.

The first event of the last series of pageants consisted in "pleasing" the sun goddess Amatersu Omikami (divine ancestress of the Emperor) by playing to her primeval and mystic music which lasted through the night. Then with elaborate ceremony the Son of Heaven offered boiled rice and strong drink to the Sun Goddess, partaking with her of the food and Sake. On succeeding days three grand banquets were held at which five of the most noble ladies of Japan performed symbolic ritual dances which each Tenno gazes upon once. Followed an imperial pilgrimage by Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako to the tombs and shrines of His Majesty's 123 imperial ancestors. Finally Their Majesties returned to Tokyo. There a military pageant and the review of the Grand Fleet preceded a joyous celebration and chrysanthemum party. Now begins the divine reign of the Tenno Hirohito which has been named Showa, meaning "enlightenment."