From the Medieval Mediterranean to Oriental Asia or vice versa? Birth and development of enthronement rituals in cross-cultural experiences and artistic parallels

Since ancient times, concealing and revealing the ruler was a common and shared custom in the court ceremonial of many cultures, both in the East and in the West. The medieval and Byzantine contexts played a crucial role in the exploration of “imperial epiphanies”. Even if curtains were the most frequent instrument to make this custom into effect, also other expedients met the need for hiding the ruler from the sight of onlookers, especially during imperial coronations. The first part of the paper aims to investigate the steps that characterised the epiphanies of the newly crowned emperor throughout the Byzantine epoch. The second part considers the astonishing similarity between these practices and the modern accession rituals in Japan, and aims to outline the points of contact between the two cultures.