Chrysanthemum Throne
throne of the Emperor of Japan
The Chrysanthemum Throne (Japanese: 皇位, Hepburn: kōi; "imperial seat") is the throne of the Emperor of Japan. The term also can refer to very specific seating, such as the Takamikura (高御座) throne in the Shishin-den at Kyoto Imperial Palace.
Various other thrones or seats that are used by the Emperor during official functions, such as those used in the Tokyo Imperial Palace or the throne used in the Speech from the Throne ceremony in the National Diet, are, however, not known as the "Chrysanthemum Throne".
"Chrysanthemum Throne" is also a metonym for the head of state and the institution of the Japanese monarchy itself.
History
In much the same sense as the British Crown, the Chrysanthemum Throne is an abstract metonymic concept that represents the monarch and the legal authority for the existence of the government. Unlike its British counterpart, the concepts of Japanese monarchy evolved differently before 1947 when there was, for example, no perceived separation of the property of the nation-state from the person and personal holdings of the Emperor.
According to legend, the Japanese monarchy is said to have been founded in 660 BCE by Emperor Jimmu; Emperor Naruhito is the 126th monarch to occupy the Chrysanthemum Throne. The extant historical records only reach back to Emperor Ōjin, regarded as the 15th emperor, and who is considered to have reigned into the early 4th century.
In the 1920s, then-Crown Prince Hirohito served as regent during several years of his father's reign, when Emperor Taishō was physically unable to fulfill his duties. However, the Prince Regent lacked the symbolic powers of the throne which he could only attain after his father's death.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Chrysanthemum Throne” as throne of the Emperor of Japan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as throne of the Emperor of Japan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1981690. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chrysanthemum Throne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.