First comes a three-hour ceremony in which the new emperor ritually informs his ancestors that the enthronement is about to take place.

[2] At the same time, the empress, in full dress regalia, moves to a smaller adjacent throne beside her husband's.

A simple wooden sceptre is presented to the emperor, who faces the prime minister standing in an adjacent courtyard, representing the Japanese people.

The emperor and empress, are both driven through Tokyo towards the Akasaka Estate by the state limousine (御料車) to acknowledge the cheers of the citizens on the major streets of the capital who have assembled there.

[4] In this ceremony, the Imperial Household Agency and constables of the Imperial Guard Headquarters provided guards of honor and security while the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Police band and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Music Corps played suitable music.

[5] The fifth is the official banquet, called Kyouen-no-gi (饗宴の儀), which is the occasion to announce and celebrate the enthronement, and to receive the felicitations of the guests to be held within Tokyo Imperial Palace.

[6] A banquet is hosted by the prime minister and their spouse in Tokyo to thank foreign heads of state and dignitaries for attending the enthronement, and to foster a greater understanding of Japan by presenting displays of traditional Japanese culture.

It is believed that when Sexagenary calendar cycle system was imported from the Sui dynasty during the reign of Empress Suiko, the accession to the throne on the first day of the year was adopted, following the example of the continental emperors.

[9] During this, the new emperor welcomes Amaterasu for the first time, centering on the offering of sacred food and a communal meal ritual.

In the Yōrō Code (720), it is also stated that "on the day of senso [ja], the sermon of Tenjin is performed and the mirror and sword of the Imbibe's divine regalia are raised."

[15] However, by the middle of the Heian period, this form had already broken down, and the pseudo-attendants in the palace were joined by the uchi-ben (equivalent to a superior lord), sotoben (an official who attended the ceremony in general, but only those who were designated to do so), and sotoben (an official who attended the ceremony in general, but only those who were designated to do so.

From the Middle Ages to the early modern period, it was common for the soto-ben to consist of two each of the daimon, chunagon, and councilors.

In the case of Emperor Ogimachi, the imperial treasury was unable to contribute to the cost of the coronation, and the ceremony was held with the assistance of Mōri Motonari.

However, despite many difficulties, the ceremony has been performed without fail in every generation, except for Emperor Chūkyō, who only reigned for a short time due to the Jōkyū War.

[16] In keeping with tradition, research has shown that during the Edo period, the general public was able to watch the accession ceremony at the Kyoto Imperial Palace by purchasing stamps (a kind of ticket).

After the Meiji Restoration, a series of ceremonies related to the senso [ja] and accession of the emperor were established by the enactment of the former Imperial Household Law and the Tengoku Order.

Initially, the accession ceremony was scheduled to take place in November, but it was postponed due to the many difficulties in the country's affairs amidst the rapid changes in the times, including the return of power by Tokugawa Yoshinobu.

In May of the following year, 1868, in order to proclaim the arrival of a new era, the new Meiji government decided to hold a new coronation ceremony appropriate to the changes, and appointed the Tsuwano Domain lord and Department of The Tsuwano Domain and deputy governor of the Department of Divinities, Kamei Korekan, was appointed as the Imperial Accession Ceremony Coordinator.

Over 500 people are present including the Prime Minister, government officials, representatives of state and private sector firms, society groups and members of the press.

It is held as a private event by the Imperial Household, and while many consider it to not violate the separation of church and state, there is still controversy as some say that it does.

[19] First, two special rice paddies (斎田, saiden) are chosen and purified by elaborate Shinto purification rites.

Once the rice is grown and harvested, it is stored in a special Shinto shrine as its go-shintai (御神体), the embodiment of a kami or divine force.

All furniture and household items also preserve these earliest, and thus most purely Japanese forms: e.g., all pottery objects are fired but unglazed.

Surrounded by courtiers (some of them carrying torches), the emperor solemnly enters first the enclosure and then each of these huts in turn and performs the same ritual—from 6:30 to 9:30 PM in the first, and in the second from 12:30 to 3:30 AM on the same night.

A special umbrella is held over the sovereign's head, in which the shade hangs from a phoenix carved at the end of the pole and prevents any defilement of his sacred person coming from the air above him.

Kneeling on a mat situated to face the Grand Shrine of Ise, as the traditional gagaku court music is played by the court orchestra, the emperor makes an offering of the sacred rice, the sake made from this rice, millet, fish and a variety of other foods from both the land and the sea to the kami, the offerings of east and west being made in their corresponding halls.

Then he eats some of this sacred rice himself, as an act of divine communion that consummates his singular unity with Amaterasu-ōmikami, thus making him (in Shinto tradition) the intermediary between Amaterasu and the Japanese people.