Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1915-06-18
Gay Season Follows Mourning
Year in Japan.
Coronation at kyoto In November viii
Be elimination Of Succession Of
FestivaIs-Tokyo Society Busy
With Functions.

Tokyo.-The years period of ma
tional mourning expired on April IL,
and the printers and dyers were busily
engaged in removing black, the sane
tuary of the late empress dowager
was transferred to the Hall Of 1mpe-
rial Spirits" in the palace grounds
from the temporary shrine at Aoyama,
and the coronation commission has
been organized with H. l. H. Prince
Fushimi as honorary president and
Prince Takatsukaea as chief commits
sioner. The latter represents one of
the five noble families, whose heads
alone were eligible to the post Of the
emperor's prime minister in former
days. The height of the cherry sea-
son and the first anniversary of the
formation of the Okuma cabinet tend
to keep Tokyo society busy with gar.
den parties and convivial meetings,
while the stock market showed few
days ago the biggest sign of returning
prosperity since the boom after the
Russian war.
April II being the tercentenary of
the death of the founder of the Toku-
gawa Shogunate and of the City of
Tokyo, an elaborate program for
commemoration is prepared in Tokyo,
at his birth place, Okazaki, at Sht-
dzuoka, where he had retired, and at
Kunozan and Nikko, where his mem
DRY is kept sacred in gorgeous tenn
pies. A Daimyo procession is repro
duced for three days in the imperial
capital. The feudal chieftain in his
palanquin, carried on the shoulders Of
tall bearers, 'shakespears," bowmen,
gunners, horses and grooms, retinue
Of servants and porters of the per.
sonal effects of his lordship-all in
authentic costuming and conventional
manners, will parade to the Shiba
park, where the Tokugawa temples
stand, from three different entrances
to the city on three. successive days.
The foreign community and tourists
are particularly anxious to see this
display, for 1t is only the third time
that feudalism Is made visible In the
metropolis. The first occasion Of the
kind was to celebrate the thirtieth
year Of the imperial residence in To-
kyo, and the second to entertain
Prince Arthur Of Connaught, who came
to Japan on the Garter mission, after
the Anglo-Japanese alliance had been
first formed.
AT Okazaki, on April IS, a parade
Of impersonated Mikawa Samurai, a
body of single-minded and simple
living warriors who fought under the
first Shotgun, 1yeyasu, to create a
reign Of peace out Of the chaos and
constant strife of the>middle ages, will
attract crowds of spectators, both
Japanese and foreign.
The grand finale OF this years
events, however, will come of in the
month of November, In the shape
Of the coronation rites by the en-
peror In his ancestral capital, Kyoto.
The coronation in, Japan is somewhat
different In nature from that of Eu.
rope, and instead Of being a purely
religious ceremony the sovereign sol.
emnly proclaims his coming to the
throne, to the imperial spirits and the
people on the one hand, and on the
other offers new rice to the deities Of
heaven and earth and partakes Of It
himself on the spot. The proclama.
ton and the accompanying state ban.
quet will comprise some modern fea.
lures, while the. ancestral worship
and the shrines for that purpose will
closely follow the example OF primi.
tive simplicity set by 4 the earliest
rulers over two Thousand years ago.
These functions are calculated to
bring unusually large numbers Of Wis
itors to Japanese shores from the
San Francisco q exposition, 50 that