Order of the Sacred Treasure

Order of the Sacred Treasure 瑞宝章
Grand Cordon 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 6th Class
Established	January 4, 1888
Precedence
Next (higher)	Order of the Precious Crown
Next (lower)	Order of Culture

The Order of the Sacred Treasure (瑞宝章, Zuihō-shō^?) is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan as the Order of Meiji. It is awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance). 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] A European counterpart of the order would be the Order of the British Empire.

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 its European counterparts, the order may be conferred posthumously.

Contents 1 Classes 2 After the 2003 reform 3 Selected recipients 3.1 1st class, Grand Cordon 3.2 2nd class, Gold and Silver Star 3.3 3rd class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon 3.4 4th class, Gold Rays with Rosette 3.5 5th class, Gold and Silver Rays 3.6 6th class, Silver Rays 3.7 7th class 3.8 8th class 3.9 Class unknown 4 Gallery 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

Classes

The Order can be awarded in any of these eight 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 the Empire to be affixed at the Imperial Palace, Tokio, 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]

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 badge for the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth classes is a Maltese cross, in gilt (1st, 3rd and 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 yellow stripe near the border, worn as a sash on the right shoulder by the 1st class, as a necklet by males of the 3rd class, 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 3rd to 6th classes, the ribbon is a bow worn on the left shoulder (with a rosette for the 4th class).

The star for the first and second classes is similar to the badge as described above, but effectively with two sets of Maltese cross, one in gilt and one placed diagonally in silver. It is worn on the left chest by the 1st class, on the right chest (without any other insignia) by the 2nd class.

The badge of the seventh and eighth classes is 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 ribbon, again in light blue with a yellow 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.

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 an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

1st class, Grand Cordon

Otto Abetz[3] Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 1981[4] Daniel Boorstin, 1986[5] Avery Brundage[6] Hugh Cortazzi, 1995[7] Takuma Dan, 1932[8] Henry Willard Denison,[9] Milton Friedman[3] Daniel Hays, 2000[3] Norio Ohga, 2001[10] James McNaughton Hester, 1981[11]

Masaru Ibuka (1908–1997)[12] Umezawa Michiharu, 1914[13] Kokichi Mikimoto, 1954[3] Akio Morita, 1991[14] Nakamura Utaemon VI, 1996[15] Henry Francis Oliver (1865–1965)[16] Radhabinod Pal, 1966 Peter Parker, 1991[17] Julian Ridsdale (1915–2004)[18] Shoichiro Toyoda, 1995[19] Hugh Trenchard, 1921[20]

2nd class, Gold and Silver Star

Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986)[3] W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993)[21] Kaoru Ishikawa (1915–1989)[22] Joseph M. Juran (1904–2008)[23] Bernard Leach (1887–1979)[24] Yuet Keung Kan (1913)[25] Richard W. Pound, 1998[26]

Johannis de Rijke, 1903[27] Sakıp Sabancı (1993–2004)[28] Jacob Schiff (1847–1920)[29] Henry W. Taft (1859–1945)[2] Ichimatsu Tanaka (1895–1983)[30] Akira Toriyama (1898–1994)[31] Eugene P. Wilkinson[32]

3rd class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon

Frank Shozo Baba (1915–2008) Robert Günther, 1929[33] Samuel Hill, 1922[34] Frederick J. Horne, 1919[35] Akira Ifukube (1914–2006)[3] Gheorghe Bagulescu (1886-1963) Miles Wedderburn Lampson (1880–1964)[36] Trevor Leggett (1914–2000)[37] Masao Maruyama (1914–1996)[38] Genzō Murakami, 1981[3] Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)[39] Delmer Myers Brown (1909-2011)[40]

Thomas Noguchi, 1999[41] Leonard Pronko, 1986[3] Eric Gascoigne Robinson (1882–1965)[3] Tadahiro Sekimoto (1926–2007)[42] Herbert Cyril Thacker (1870–1953)[43] Charles E. Tuttle (1915–1993)[44] Masanobu Tsuji (1902–1961)[45] Takeo Uesugi, 2010[46] Arthur Young (1907–1979)[3] Elizabeth Gray Vining (1902–1999)[47] Toshiro Mifune, 1993[48] Günther Gumprich [49] Captain Arthur Hawkins (USN)

4th class, Gold Rays with Rosette

Keiko Fukuda, 1990[50] Herbert Keppler, 2002[51] Hidetaka Nishiyama, 2000[52] Junnosuke Ofusa (1908–1994)[53]

Richard Ponsonby-Fane (1878–1937)[54] Shozo Sato, 2004[55] Oskar Ritter und Edler von Xylander[56] Serizawa Keisuke (1895–1984)[57] Thomas Masuda (1906-1986) Masaru Funai, 2001 [58]

5th class, Gold and Silver Rays

George Edward Luckman Gauntlett (1868–1956)[59] Friedrich Hirzebruch, 1996[60]

Chiura Obata (1885–1975)[61] Yoshio Tamiya (1905–1988), 1976[62] Thomas Masuda (1906-1986)

6th class, Silver Rays

7th class

8th class

Class unknown

Jackson Bailey, 1988[3] Faubion Bowers[63] Ernesto Burzagli (1873–1944)[64] Winfield Scott Chaplin (1847–1918)[65] George Ramsay Cook, 1994[3] David Culver[3] Dorothy DeLay[66] Mamadou Diarra, 1988[67] Robert Lawrence Eichelberger[68] Anton Geesink[69] John Whitney Hall[70] Heinrich Hertz[3] Marcel Junod, 1961[3] Kume Kunitake, 1889[71] Tokubei Kuroda (1886–1987)[72] Takahira Kogoro (1854–1926)[73]

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, 2003[74] Toshirō Mifune, 1993[75] William Henry O'Connell Lawrence Olson, 1987[76] Fusakichi Omori, 1928 [77] Jean-Jacques Origas, 1998[3] John Roderick, 1985[78] Renato Ruggiero[79] Jack Seaward, 1986[80] Edmund Charles Wyldbore Smith (1877–1938)[81] Kenjiro Takayanagi, 1989[82] Eiji Tsuburaya, 1970[83] Morihei Ueshiba (1883–1969)[3] J.R. Wasson (1855–1913)[84] Yosh Uchida, 1986[69] Yoshikawa Eiji, 1962[85]

• Ayappanpillai Madhavan Nair, (1984)^[86]

Gallery

Notes

References

• Peterson, James W., Barry C. Weaver and Michael A. Quigley. (2001). Orders and Medals of Japan and Associated States. San Ramon, California: Orders and Medals Society of America. 10-ISBN 1-890974-09-9
• Rossiter, Johnson, ed. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Vol. II. Boston: The Biographical Society....Click link for digitized, full text copy of this book
• Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, Kenkyusha Limited, Tokyo 1991, ISBN 4-7674-2015-6

External links

• Japan, Cabinet Office: Decorations and Medals; Decoration Bureau: Order of the Sacred Treasure
• Japan Mint: Production Process

Japanese honors system Current orders Order of the Chrysanthemum  • Order of the Paulownia Flowers  • Order of the Rising Sun  • Order of the Precious Crown  • Order of the Sacred Treasure  • Order of Culture  • Medals of Honor Former orders Order of the Golden Kite  • Military Medals of Honor