Order of the Sacred Treasure

Order of the Sacred Treasure
瑞宝章
Star of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
Awarded by the Emperor of Japan
Type Order
Awarded for Long and/or meritorious civil or military service
Status Currently constituted
Sovereign His Imperial Majesty
The Emperor
Grades (w/ post-nominals) 1st through 8th Class (1888-2003)
Since 2003:
Grand Cordon
Gold and Silver Star (Rays, Principal Grade)
Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (Cordon, Middle Grade)
Gold Rays with Rosette (Cordon, Junior Grade)
Gold and Silver Rays (Double Rays)
Silver Rays (Single Ray)
Established 4 January 1888
Precedence
Next (higher) Order of the Rising Sun
Next (lower) Order of Culture
Ribbon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure – new type

The Order of the Sacred Treasure (瑞宝章 Zuihō-shō) is a Japanese Order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest two medals being abolished that year. The most widely conferred Japanese order, it is awarded to those who have made distinguished achievements in research fields, business industries, healthcare, social work, state/local government fields or the improvement of life for handicapped/impaired persons.[1]

Originally a male-only decoration, the order has been made available to women since 1919; it is awarded for both civil and military merit, though of a lesser degree than that required for the conferment of the Order of the Rising Sun. Unlike most of its European counterparts, the order may be conferred posthumously.

Classes

The Order can be awarded in any of six classes. Conventionally, a diploma is prepared to accompany the insignia of the order, and in some rare instances, the personal signature of the emperor will have been added. As an illustration of the wording of the text, a translation of a representative 1929 diploma says:

"By the grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on the throne occupied by the same dynasty from time immemorial,
We confer the Second Class of the Imperial Order of Meiji upon Henry Waters Taft, a citizen of the United States of America and a director of the Japan Society of New York, and invest him with the insignia of the same class of the Order of the Double Rays of the Rising Sun, in expression of the good will which we entertain towards him.
"In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hand and caused the Grand Seal of State to be affixed at the Imperial Palace, Tokyo, this thirteenth day of the fifth month of the fourth year of Shōwa, corresponding to the 2,589th year from the accession to the throne of Emperor Jimmu."[2]

Insignia

The insignia of the order incorporates symbols for the three imperial treasures: the Yata Mirror, so sacred that not even the Emperor is allowed to look at it; the Yasakani Jewel, which is made of the finest jade; and the Emperor's personal sword.

The star for the Grand Cordon and Second Class is similar to the badge as described above, but effectively with two sets of Maltese crosses, one in gilt and one placed diagonally in silver. It is worn on the left chest by the Grand Cordon, on the right chest (without any other insignia) by the 2nd class.

The badge for the first through sixth classes is a Maltese cross, in gilt (1st-4th classes), gilt and silver (5th class) and silver (6th class), with white enameled rays (representing the sword). The central disc is blue, bearing an eight-pointed silver star (representing the mirror), surrounded by a wreath with red-enameled dots (representing the jewel). The badge is suspended on a ribbon in light blue with a gold stripe near the border, worn as a sash on the right shoulder by the Grand Cordon, as a necklet by males of the 2nd and 3rd classes, on the left chest (the ribbon folded into a triangle) by the 4th to 6th classes (with a rosette for the 4th class). For females of the 2nd to 6th classes, the ribbon is a bow worn on the left shoulder (with a rosette for the 4th class).

Until 2003, when it was abolished, the badge of the seventh and eighth classes was an eight-pointed silver medal, partially gilded for the 7th class, with representations of just the mirror and the jewel. The badge is suspended on a white ribbon with a gold stripe near the border, worn by men on the left chest (the ribbon folded into a triangle). For women, the ribbon is a bow worn on the left shoulder.

Until 2003, the ribbon of the order was white with two gold stripes near the borders; since then the ribbon has been light blue, but retains two gold stripes near the borders. The ribbon for the Fourth Class and above incorporates a blue-and-gold rosette (silver until 2003), with a solid gold bar for the Grand Cordon, a gold and silver bar for the Second Class, a solid silver bar for the Third Class and only the rosette for the Fourth Class. The ribbon for the Fifth and Sixth Classes has a centered blue disc (silver until 2003) with gold rays radiating from its center, eight rays for the Fifth Class and six rays for the Sixth Class. Formerly, the ribbon for the Seventh and Eighth Classes had a centered silver disc with gold rays radiating from its center, four rays for the Seventh Class and three rays for the Eighth Class.

Ribbons of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
1888–2003 2003–present
Grand Cordon
Second Class, Gold and Silver Star
Third Class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon
Fourth Class, Gold Rays with Rosette
Fifth Class, Gold and Silver Rays
Sixth Class, Silver Rays
Seventh Class, Medal (abolished 2003)
Eighth Class, Medal (abolished 2003)
General ribbon of the order

After the 2003 reform

In 2003 the lowest two classes of the Order were abolished. Moreover, the badges of the Order will from now on be suspended from three white-enamelled paulownia leaves (not chrysanthemum leaves as the Decoration Bureau page claims).

Selected recipients

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

1st class, Grand Cordon

2nd class, Gold and Silver Star

3rd class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon

4th class, Gold Rays with Rosette

5th class, Gold and Silver Rays

6th class, Silver Rays

7th class: abolished

While established with the original induction of the First 6 classes, Class 7 has never been issued or given an official designation or design.

Officially the Medal and its designation were abolished in 2003, there are no known recipients or issuances of this Medal in its original design from 1887.

8th class: abolished

While established with the original induction of the First 6 classes, Class 8 has never been issued or designated a design, like Class 7 Before it.

Officially the Medal and its designation were abolished in 2003, there are no known recipients or issuances of this Medal in its original design from 1887.

General Class

Gallery

See also

References

  1. Order of the Sacred Treasure profile, www8.cao.go.jp; accessed 6 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 Honor awarded 1929 -- "Japanese Emperor Honors H.W. Taft; Consul-General Gives Insignia for Fostering International Friendship. Diploma Also Presented; Brother of Chief Justice Receives Order of Rising Sun at Exercises Here," New York Times, June 28, 1929.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "L'Ordre du Trésor Sacré (The Order of the Sacred Treasure)". L'Harmattan (in French). December 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 32428. p. 6569. 19 August 1921. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  5. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi profile; accessed 2 July 2014
  6. King, Wayne; Warren Weaver, Jr. (2 May 1986). "Briefing: Boorstin and the Emperor". New York Times.
  7. "The Gateway's Oriental Treasure". Time. 17 June 1966.
  8. Japan Society of London. "Sir Hugh Cortazzi profile at". AIM25. Retrieved 2 July 2014. Grand Cordon, Order of the Sacred Treasure (Japan), 1995
  9. "Takuma Dan profile". Time. 14 March 1932.
  10. "Henry Willard Denison, Portraits of State and National Legislators and Others On the First Floor of The State House, New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources". nh.gov.
  11. "Passing of Norio Ohga, Senior Advisor and former President and Chairman, Sony Corporation", sony.net, 23 April 2011; retrieved 8 August 2011.
  12. Krebs, Alvin; Robert McG. Thomas (15 January 1981). "Notes on People: Hester Honored". New York Times.
  13. "KIYOSHI SUMIYA". Philippines Japan Society Medal of Merit Awardees.
  14. Kirkup, James. Masaru Ibuka obituary, independent.co.uk, The Independent (London, UK), 22 December 1997; accessed 2 July 2014.
  15. Umezawa Michiharu
  16. "Akio Morita: Biography". Sony Corporation of America. 3 October 1999.
  17. Strom, Stephanie "Nakamura Utaemon VI, 84, International Star of Kabuki", New York Times, 4 April 2001.
  18. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30363. p. 11322. 30 October 1917. Retrieved 1 February 2008.
  19. "Fellowship to Recognise Contribution to Language Teaching and Learning", Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT), 27 March 2002; retrieved 19 June 2011.
  20. Sir Julian Ridsdale profile, timesonline.co.uk, 23 July 2004; accessed 6 July 2014.
  21. Shoichiro Toyoda profile, toyota.com; accessed 2 July 2014.
  22. The London Gazette: no. 32180. p. 62. 4 January 1921. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  23. W. Edwards Deming profile, editions-harmattan.fr; accessed 6 July 2014.
  24. Cited in the Congressional Record, November 5, 1973, Volume 119, No. 168.
  25. Profile of Ted Fujita, uchicago.edu; accessed 2 July 2014.
  26. Beam, George (2001). Quality Public Management. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 252. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  27. "Joseph Juran: American pioneer of quality control who wrote the definitive manual and helped create Japan's postwar economic miracle". The Times (London, UK). 6 March 2008.
  28. Yuet Keung Kan profile, Bulletin of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (p. 5)
  29. Lord, Frances. "Bernard Leach archive". Crafts Study Centre. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  30. "L'Ordre du Trésor Sacré (The Order of the Sacred Treasure)". L'Harmattan (in French). Retrieved 22 April 2009. Order with gold and silver star
  31. Chubu Regional Construction Bureau, Ministry of Construction, Kiso River Lower Reaches Works Office. Johannis de Rijke profile, The Father of the Riparian Work on the Kiso-Sansen: Johannis de Rijke, page 6
  32. L'Harmattan entry for Sakıp Sabancı (misspelled as Sakip Sananci); accessed 6 July 2014.
  33. Adler, Cyrus (1921). Profile of Jacob Henry Schiff, books.google.com; accessed 2 July 2014.]
  34. National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (NRI), 田中一松, 1983.
  35. "Nihon no shashinka", Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography (Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005); ISBN 4-8169-1948-1, p. 291 (Japanese)
  36. "VADM Eugene P. "Dennis" Wilkinson (retired)". U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum. Archived from the original on 7 October 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2007.
  37. Delmer Brown profile, csuchico.edu; accessed 2 July 2014.
  38. The London Gazette: no. 33630. p. 4801. 1 August 1930. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  39. "Kun Santo Zuiho Sho", Niemöller, Pätzold & Chung (1995) 'Lux Oriente', KBMf 188, p. IV
  40. Profile of Günther Gumprich, ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de; accessed 6 July 2014.
  41. John E. Tuhy, Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere (1983), Portland, Oregon, USA: Timber Press, ISBN 0-917304-77-2, p. 178
  42. "Japan Decorates Our Naval Attache" (PDF), New York Times, 25 March 1919
  43. "Pax Britannica (3rd Class)", Time, 16 May 1932.
  44. Dunne, A., & Bowen, R. (2003): Trevor Pryce Leggett profile, Britain & Japan: biographical portraits (Vol. 4, pp. 323–33). London: Routledge; ISBN 978-1-9033-5014-0
  45. Toshiro Mifune profile, mifuneproductions.co.jp; accessed 2 July 2014.
  46. Brenson, Michael (December 31, 1988). "Isamu Noguchi, the Sculptor, Dies at 84". New York Times.
  47. Duquesne/Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law profile of Thomas Noguchi, jfk.duq.edul accessed 2 July 2014.
  48. "Dr Ozato Conferral" (PDF). Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Washington Office. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  49. 西へ!―アメリカ人の太平洋開拓史 [To the west! - History of American pioneering in the Pacific Ocean] (in Japanese). Tokyo, Japan: Kinokuniya. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  50. Hemphill, Elizabeth (1969). The Road to KEEP (First ed.). New York and Tokyo: John Weatherhill Inc. p. 186.
  51. "Tadahiro Sekimoto, Former Chairman of NEC, Passed Away on November 11, 2007", NEC Corporation, nec.co.jp, 12 November 2007.
  52. Profile of Hiroko Sho, oist.jp; accessed 2 July 2014.
  53. Profile of Akira Suzuki, nobelprize.org; accessed 2 July 2014.
  54. Prominent People of the Maritime Provinces, p. 193
  55. Takeo Uesugi profile, rafu.com; accessed 2 July 2014.
  56. Tsuji, Masanobu (1997) Japan's Greatest Victory, Britain's Worst Defeat, p. 108
  57. Profile, Tuttle Publishing Internet homepage, peripluspublishinggroup.com; accessed 2 July 2014.
  58. "Obituary: Elizabeth Vining". The Economist. 11 December 1999.
  59. Recipient with citation
  60. Sullivan, K. (2003): A lifetime of Judo: 90 year old Keiko Fukuda, the martial art's highest-ranked woman, still goes to the mat for her Bay Area students, judoinfo.com, reproduced from the San Francisco Chronicle, 17 October 2003; retrieved 25 April 2010.
  61. Mostel, Raphael (1 January 2013). "Beate Sirota Gordon Dies at 89". Forward.
  62. Herbert Keppler profile, ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp; accessed 2 July 2014.
  63. Nishiyama bio, ITKF,org; accessed 2 July 2014.
  64. Bird, David and Robert McG. Thomas Jr. "Notes on People: Japanese Writer for Times Decorated by Hirohito", New York Times, 13 May 1982.
  65. Agnes Mitsue Niyekawa profile, 1 January 1999; accessed 2 July 2014.
  66. Britton, Dorothy. (1997). Richard Ponsonby-Fane profile, "A Modern William Adams"], Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits], books.google.com, page 203; accessed 6 July 2014.
  67. About Shozo Sato, University of Illinois at Urbana website; 10 November 2006; accessed 2 July 2014.
  68. Oskar Ritter und Edler von Xylander, home.att.net; accessed 2 July 2014.
  69. Serizawa Keisuke profile, seribi.jp; accessed 2 July 2014.
  70. Funai website; accessed 2 July 2014.
  71. Takahashi, Masao (2005). Mastering Judo. Windsor, Ontario: Human Kinetics. p. 213. ISBN 073605099X.
  72. Forward. Yokohama, Japan: St. Joseph College. 1956. p. 8.
  73. Letter from the Consulate General of Japan, 3 October 1988. C. Elizabeth Boyd '33 Archives, Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, United States.
  74. Dr. Andrew Tsubaki profile, Consulate General of Japan website; accessed 2 July 2014.
  75. George Gauntlett profile, Local Information Department, Okayama Prefectural Library website; accessed 6 July 2014.
  76. "L'Ordre du Trésor Sacré (The Order of the Sacred Treasure)". L'Harmattan (in French). Retrieved 22 April 2009. Order with gold and silver rays
  77. Niklaus, Robert L., John S. Sawin, & Samuel J. Stoesz. All for Jesus: God at Work in The Christian and Missionary Alliance Over One Hundred Years. Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1986, p. 201.
  78. Chiura Obata profile, fandrfinearts.com; accessed 2 July 2014.
  79. Yoshio Tamiya profile, tamiya.com; accessed 2 July 2014.
  80. Judo Alberta
  81. Kubota Garden Foundation, kubotagarden.org; accessed 2 July 2014.
  82. Azalia Peet profile, fivecolleges.edu; accessed 10 August 2014.
  83. Friendship through Flowers, History of the Second Twenty-five Years 1981 - 2006, p80, accessed 28 December 2015
  84. Lamott, Willis, ed. (1932). "Obituary". Japan Christian Yearbook (Ginza: Federation of Christian Missions in Japan) (30th). Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  85. "Portrait of the Week". The Japan Society. The Japan Society, London, UK. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  86. Pace, Eric (22 November 1999). "Faubion Bowers, 82, Defender Of Kabuki in Occupied Japan". New York Times.
  87. "Cruiser 'Livia' in Kobe to Greet Italians", Osaka Mainichi, 29 July 1922.
  88. "Prof. Chaplin's New Post; He will be Chancellor of the Washington University", New York Times, 30 August 1891.
  89. Van Gelder, Laurence. "Footlights: Honor Bound", New York Times, 4 November 1998.
  90. L'Harmattan web site (French)
  91. "Uncle Bob", Time, 10 September 1945.
  92. Yoshikawa, Eiji. (1995). Musashi (transl. Charles S. Terry), p. 971.
  93. L'Harmattan web site; accessed 2 July 2014 (French)
  94. Scott, Janny. "John W. Hall, Historian of Japan, Dies at 81", New York Times, 27 October 1997; accessed 2 July 2014.
  95. "Text of Treaty; Signed by the Emperor of Japan and Czar of Russia", New York Times, 17 October 1905.
  96. Brownlee, John. (1997). Japanese historians and the national myths, 1600-1945: the age of the gods and Emperor Jinmu, p. 96
  97. L'Harmattan web site (in French), Order with gold rays and cross; UNICEF: Goodwill Ambassador Kuroyanagi profile; accessed 6 July 2014.
  98. L'Harmattan web site (French); accessed 6 July 2014.
  99. "Lawrence Olson, 73, An Expert on Japan" New York Times, 2 April 1992.
  100. Davison, Charles (1924). "Fusakichi Omori and his work on Earthquakes". Bulletin of the Seismic Society of America 14: 240–255. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  101. Briscoe, David (13 March 2008). "John Roderick; AP Correspondent Captured a Changing China". Associated Press (Washington Post). Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  102. L'Harmattan web site (in French), editions-harmattan.fr; accessed 6 July 2014.
  103. "Japan Expert, Linguist & Writer Jack Seward Passes away at 86", southjnews.com; accessed 6 July 2014.
  104. The London Gazette: no. 32095. p. 10197. 22 October 1920. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  105. "Kenjiro Takayanagi, Electrical Engineer, 91", New York Times, 25 July 1990.
  106. Morrison, Donald. "Japan's Master of Monsters", Time. 13 December 2007.
  107. "A Victory for the Chinese; Japanese Driven with Heavy Loss from Ping-yang", New York Times, 22 August 1894.

[1]

[2]

Sources

External links

Media related to Order of the Sacred Treasure at Wikimedia Commons

  1. "Friendship through Flowers, History of the Second Twenty-Five Years 1981 - 2006" (PDF). Ikebana International. Ikebana International Incorporated. 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.