Heisei Era to Reiwa Era

Today begins a new era for Japan.  May 1, 2019 has been declared the first day of the new Reiwa Era.  The country is in a festive mood!

Yesterday was last day of the 31 years of the Heisei Era because from today there is a new emperor...  Crown Prince Naruhito became emperor because his father, the Heisei emperor abdicated his throne.  This alone is rather unheard of as historically the reigning seat changed only with the passing of the former emperor...  Three years ago Emperor Akihito publicly announced his intention to resign and it has taken the intervening years to move mountains...  The transferal of duties, the relocating of the royal family to different parts of the royal grounds, the historical research of the ceremonies and the setting up of calendars etc...

Did you know that Japan has a completely different calendar based upon the reigning emperor's era?

It is rather confusing for non-Japanese to figure out the Japanese calendar...  Let's see.  I was born in 1955 but by the Japanese calendar this goes down as the Showa Era year 30.  Takumi was born in Showa 60 (1985) but the Showa Era ended at Showa 64 and then came the Heisei Era.  Leiya was born in the first year of the Heisei Era (1989) and it ended yesterday with Heisei 31.  For some reason the eras overlap by a year though (Leiya is going to be 30) so go figure... With all that information, by the Japanese calendar can you figure out how old Takumi is going to be?  Good, I can't either.

The distinction in eras is very important to Japanese and today was a day of rituals and ceremony and celebration.  The selection of the name of the era was a long and well contemplated process.  I thought it was interesting that one consideration was the western initial to the era...  In many Japanese documents it is easiest to put the era's western initial in the line of years, thus in the case of Showa the letter S was used.   Heisei Era was marked by an H and Reiwa will be marked with an R...  The naming committee bypassed any possible era names that might begin with another H or an S or any of the other previous eras western initials... 

Reiwa by the way means "Beautiful Peace" or " Good Harmony", depending on the nuance.

Today, Tetsu and I went off to an onsen and when we entered the lobby we were greeted with a set of Japanese samurai armor and the characters for the new Reiwa Era.  May 5th is Boys' Day thus the armor and the colorful carp kites.  The printed sign declares this the first year of Reiwa... May 1st...  plus the name of the onsen.  The two calligraphed frames say Heisei on the right and Reiwa on the left.

Here's to Beautiful Peace in the new era!