Sons of Heaven tells the little-known story of the oldest and most mysterious monarchy in the world: men - and a few women - who for nearly two millennia have stood incontestably as Japan's supreme fount of authority.
Opening with a vivid description of the enthronement of Hirohito, the 124th Son of Heaven, Jerrold M. Packard then goes back 2000 years to the time of the mythical first emperor, Jimmu, who, according to legend, descended directly from the gods. From him the Japanese imperial dynasty has flowed, connecting the people with their past and furnishing their only link with the divine. Until very recently, the Japanese saw little of their emperor: court life was a secluded one that revolved around ceremony, ritual, an intricate social code and enormously complex forms of dress, poetry and lovemaking — and of course the emperor's primary duty, to worship the deities, particularly his own ancestors. Despite the emasculating strictures of their seclusion from the real world, the royals' behaviour has not always been godlike in private...
Hirohito, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has presided over the dramatic rise, fall and rise of his nation, and his role as emperor has evolved accordingly. When Japan was paralysed in defeat in 1946, Hirohito declared that he is not a god, in a stroke transforming the status of the Sons of Heaven - though he remains the incarnate symbol of Japan.
Packard takes the reader through the grand and troubled history of the court, focusing on both the personalities and the events in a story little reported in any language except Japanese. Written in a style both scholarly and entertaining, Sons of Heaven is a fascinating and comprehensive social history of an immensely important royal institution.
Jerrold M. Packard is a writer and historian who lives on the West Coast of the United States. His previous books include The Queen and Her Court, a study of British royalty, and Peter's Kingdom, a comprehensive account of the Vatican.
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