Japan's Three Sacred Treasures No One Has Ever Seen

Japan has three sacred treasures — a mirror, a sword and a jewel — that no one alive has seen. Not historians, not photographers, reportedly not even the emperor. When a new emperor takes the throne, they are carried before him in closed boxes. Where they came from (the sun goddess's cave and the eight-headed serpent), why the mirror stays hidden at Ise, how the sword sank with a six-year-old emperor at Dan-no-ura in 1185, the jewel whose box floated back, and what happened in 1945 and 2019. Shorts: Japan Has a Mirror No One Is Allowed to See · Japan Has a Sword No One Is Allowed to See · Japan Has a Jewel No One Is Allowed to See Previous episode — the kappa:    • A Sake Brewery in Japan Keeps a Kappa Mumm...   ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Three treasures no one has seen 00:42 How the gods got them 01:38 The mirror of Ise 02:31 The sword that sank 03:40 The jewel that floated back 04:13 1945 and 2019 04:51 Would you open the box? 📚 Sources Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), tr. Basil Hall Chamberlain / W. G. Aston The Tale of the Heike, tr. Royall Tyler (2012) Imperial Household Agency · Ise Grand Shrine · Atsuta Shrine Kido Kōichi, diary (1945) 🖼 Image credits (via Wikimedia Commons) "Atsuta Shrine" by Bariston, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Atsuta-jingū (Atsuta-ku, Nagoya) VLux5 hdsr at07" by Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert, CC BY 4.0 "Ceremony of the Enthronement of His Majesty the Emperor at the Seiden5" and "…Seiden8" by Prime Minister's Office of Japan, CC BY 4.0 "Inheritance Ceremony of Kenji and others" by Prime Minister's Office of Japan, CC BY 4.0 "Sacred tree bound with a shimenawa at Suwa Shrine in Nagasaki" by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0 "Takachiho-gawara Kirishima City Kagoshima Pref04n4050" by 663highland, CC BY 2.5 "Oshiraishi-2013-08a" by Hanabi123, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Shikinen-sengu 001" by Ocdp, CC BY-SA 3.0 "Tokyo Imperial Palace from Tokyo Tower" by Chris 73, CC BY-SA 3.0 "Utagawa Kuniyoshi Heike" by ArishG, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Ishikushiro, magatama, kiriko, kudatama. Kofun. Musée Guimet" by Ismoon, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Itoigawa's jadeite magatamas of Ukikunden Site" by Peka, CC BY-SA 4.0 Other images: public domain (Utagawa Kunisada, Toyohara Chikanobu, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Ogata Gekkō, Utagawa Yoshitsuya, Utagawa Sadahide, Shunsai Toshimasa, Gaetano Faillace, Ministry of Railways). Music: original. Narration: AI voice (Kokoro TTS). #japan #japanesemythology #imperialregalia #shinto #japanesehistory