Word: jimmu
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...beginning there was a namelessness with the beautiful shape of an egg. It divided, and became heaven and earth. And it divided again and became male and female. These in their turn begat Izanagi and Izanami, who begat the Sun Goddess, who had a great-great-grandson named Jimmu Tenno, who descended to rule the earth...
...When Jimmu got lost among the coniform hills of Japan, he conjured up a huge three-legged crow to guide him and his warriors (begat by whom, no one knows) to fruitful places. Jimmu made jars out of Mt. Kagu, filled them with rice wine, placed them in the River Nyu, and when the drunken fish wobbled to the surface, he said good times were coming. A kite of brilliant feathers perched on his bow and dazzled his enemies' eyes out. Then one day in 660 B.C. he acceded to the world-throne-i.e., Japan...
From 660 B.C. to 1940 A.D., according to the Japanese credo, the sons of Jimmu Tennō ruled and begat, with the aid of Shoguns, concubines and kinfolks. Down through the years Imperial legends unfolded into a religion and Imperial symbols became as hush-hush as primitive taboos-the divine sword, the jewel, the mirror. The Emperors took the 16-petaled chrysanthemum as a sort of sacred trademark. Modern Japanese are skeptical, sometimes even resentful, of these legends and taboos, but even the best educated observe the outward forms...
...almost as lovely as in the cherry-blossom season. The annual chrysanthemum season, coincident with the anniversary of the late Emperor Meiji's birthday, was celebrated all over Japan with especial excitement: Emperor Hirohito chose it to mark the 2,600th Anniversary of the fair-weather day when Jimmu took on power...
From the days of Japan's first Emperor, Jimmu (one of whose female descendants had the wonderfully prescient name Jingo), the Imperial Throne has had its ups and its downs. At present the position of the Son of the Sun is at highest noon. Richer than all the Caesars, robed in 2,000 years of resplendent (if slightly manipulated) tradition, worshiped as a God by 72,000,000 emotional people, Hirohito is the earth's rarest vessel of authority...