Emperor of Japan

[Kiipu]

Keene, Donald. Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. Columbia University Press, 2002.

 

Chapter 2, Page 11.

Before the birth, Nakayama Tadayasu had borrowed safe-delivery charms from various auspicious temples and individuals.  He was now able to return them with thanks and presents.  A court lady sent by the emperor to inspect the prince left with him a protective dagger and a sleeved coverlet (kaimaki).  The baby would receive many other presents that though traditional, may appear bizarre to contemporary readers.  First, however, was the ceremony of cutting, binding, and cauterizing the umbilical cord.4  The placenta was washed and placed in an earthenware vessel which, in turn, was placed in a bucket of unpainted wood, wrapped in white silk, and displayed on a stand in the next room along with a pair of knives, two blue stones, and two dried sardines.5  In front of them a lamp was kept burning day and night, and a screen was placed around them.  The wooden bucket was decorated with designs in white paste showing pines, bamboos, cranes, and tortoises but not plum blossoms (usually associated with pines and bamboos in artistic compositions) because plum blossoms fall, an inauspicious association.

 

Notes, Page 728

4. Ibid., 1, p. 3. A knife, called a tekōnagatana, normally used in the gembuku ceremony to cut the hair of a boy who has come of age, substituted in the ceremony for the umbilical cord.  The authors of the Meiji tennō ki commented that this was probably a remnant of some “old custom.”

 

5. The sardines were of the kind called gomame, and they were considered to be felicitous because their name includes the word mame, meaning “healthy.”

[Kiipu]

After the umbilical cord had been cut, the baby was given his first bath.  In keeping with the old custom, the water had been drawn from the Kamo River and was mixed with well water.  For the next few days, until the baby was given swaddling clothes, he was dressed in an undershirt and a sleeveless coat.  His bedding was laid on a katataka (a thick tatami that has been sliced in half on the bias, leaving one end much higher than the other) in the main room of the little house where he was born.  A pillow was placed at the high end of the tatami to the east or to the south, and it was guarded by two papier-māché dogs facing each other.  Between the two dogs were placed sixteen articles of cosmetics.  Behind them was a stand on which the “protective dagger” the prince had received was placed along with an amagatsu doll6 also wrapped in white silk but with red silk pasted to the ends of its arms and its feet.

 

6. A very simple doll, rather like a modern kokeshi except for the arms, which stick out at right angles from the body, forming a kind of cross.  Such dolls were placed beside the bed of an infant to absorb evil influences and thereby protect the child.  They were kept by the bed until the child had reached its third year.  The doll was about a foot and half tall.

[Kiipu]

1 hour ago, Kiipu said:

A court lady sent by the emperor to inspect the prince left with him a protective dagger ....

 

Does anyone by chance happen to know what the Japanese name is for this "protective dagger?"

[BANGBANGSAN]

1 hour ago, Kiipu said:

 

Does anyone by chance happen to know what the Japanese name is for this "protective dagger?"

The protective dagger is called 守り刀. The name of Emperor 睦仁（Mutsuhito)'s 守り刀 is not known. However, one of the most famous 守り刀 belonged to 源義経(Minamoto no Yoshitsune) and is called 今剣(Imatsurugi).It was made by 三条宗近 (Sanjo Munechika)。

[Kiipu]

Thanks Trystan.  Looks like the pronunciation is mamorigatana 守り刀.  I see the ceremony is called 賜剣の儀（shiken no gi).

賜剣の儀

[cisco-san]

Hello,

 

sorry I don´t want to hijach this tread, but I own a blade signed "Unshū Yoshikane saku" and on the other site "Mamorigatana Suyama Tadash" (see also

)