Japanese National Anthem for Piano

In the Kamakura period, "Kimigayo" was used as a festive song among samurai, and then became popular among the people in the Edo period. In the later part of the Edo period, "Kimigayo" was used in the Ōoku (harem of Edo Castle, current Tokyo Imperial Palace) and Satsuma-han (current Kagoshima Prefecture) as a common festive new year song. In those contexts, "kimi" never meant the emperor, but only the Tokugawa shōgun, the Shimazu clan as rulers of the Satsuma-han, guests of honour, or all members of a festive drinking party. After the Meiji Restoration, samurai from Satsuma-han controlled the Imperial Japanese government, and they adopted "Kimigayo" as the national anthem of Japan. From this time until the Japanese defeat at the end of World War II, "Kimigayo" was understood to mean the long reign of the Emperor. With the adoption of the Constitution of Japan in 1947, the Emperor became no longer a sovereign who ruled by divine right, but a human who is a symbol of the state and of the unity of the people as a constitutional monarch.^[6] The Ministry of Education did not give any new meanings for "Kimigayo" after the war; this allowed the song to mean the Japanese people. The Ministry also did not formally renounce the pre-war meaning of "Kimigayo".