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Case file s990 · Japan and Southeast Asia · 660 BCE

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660 BCE

Shinpukuji-bon Kojiki (真福寺本古事記): Page from a facsimile of the 14th century Shinpukuji manuscript (真福寺本) of the Kojiki published in 1924-1925. — Shinpukuji-bon Kojiki (真福寺本古事記). Ken'yu (賢瑜), Koten Hozonkai (古典保存会). Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Died: 660 BC (traditional accession date of Emperor Jimmu, Ninigi's great-grandson, in the Nihon Shoki)
Place: Ise Grand Shrine, Mie, Japan; Atsuta Shrine, Nagoya; Imperial Palace, Tokyo
Field: imperial throne; sacred regalia
Legal tradition: Imperial regalia custom; Imperial House Economy Law (1947), "things of lineage to be passed down with the throne"
Historical event: Accession of Emperor Naruhito, 1 May 2019

Japan and Southeast Asia Crowns and succession Ancient world East Asia Japan

Scripture: this account comes from a sacred text. Court and archive records of it do not exist.

The Kojiki says the Sun Goddess sent her grandson to rule Japan with a mirror, a jewel and a sword, and the law still passes them with the throne

The Kojiki, compiled in 712, records that when the Sun Goddess Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi down from Heaven to rule the Central Land of Reed-Plains, she gave him the curved jewels and the mirror that had drawn her out of the Rock-Dwelling, and the Herb-Quelling Great Sword. She told him: "Regard this mirror exactly as if it were our august spirit." The Nihon Shoki, finished in 720, tells the same descent, and places the first emperor, Jimmu, three generations later. Scholars treat Jimmu's dates as invented in the 6th and 7th centuries. Ise Jingu says the mirror was moved out of the palace under the 10th emperor and enshrined at Ise about 2,000 years ago. The sword went to Atsuta Shrine. The Nihon Shoki records that the sword was stolen in 668 and recovered, and returned to Atsuta in 686 after diviners blamed it for the emperor's illness. Under the 1947 Imperial House Economy Law the regalia are the emperor's private property that passes with the throne. Only adult male members of the imperial family eligible to succeed attend the ceremony that transfers them. On 1 May 2019 Naruhito received the sword, the jewel and the state and privy seals in that ceremony. The mirror is enshrined at Ise, the sword at Atsuta and the jewel in the palace, and none of them is shown to the public^†.

What the law took from it

An heirloom defined as passing "with the throne" can never be sold, divided or claimed by any other heir.

Sources

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “The Kojiki says the Sun Goddess sent her grandson to rule Japan with a mirror, a jewel and a sword, and the law still passes them with the throne,” story s990, https://www.celebrity.estate/imperial-regalia-660-bc, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Japan and Southeast Asia Crowns and succession Ancient world East Asia Japan