@inbook{10.2307/j.ctt13x1kjh.4,
 ISBN = {9780824839864},
 URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x1kjh.4},
 abstract = {In 1990 the accession of Emperor Akihito (1933–) to the Japanese imperial throne was celebrated in an elaborate enthronement ceremony. Interviewed by a reporter from theAsahi shinbunnewspaper about his impressions of the event, U.S. historian John Dower said that he had found in this ceremony a “beautiful contradiction,” that is, a curious ambivalence between the message of peace and democracy as verbally expressed in the emperor’s speech and the traditional image of sovereignty as visually represented by various liturgical paraphernalia, such as the emperor’s ancient-style dress and throne.¹ This “beautiful contradiction” between the modern and democratic and},
 bookauthor = {ASUKA SANGO},
 booktitle = {The Halo of Golden Light: Imperial Authority and Buddhist Ritual in Heian Japan},
 pages = {ix--xxii},
 publisher = {University of Hawai'i Press},
 title = {INTRODUCTION},
 year = {2015}
}