>>6602645
>>6602639
>Morning Sun room
Symbolism / meaning:
https://www.japanmeetings.org/why-japan/unique-venues/akasaka-palace.html
FTA
The Asahi no Ma, with a floor space of 180 square meters, and also decorated in the French 18th-century classical style, is the most important and formal of the State Rooms within the Palace, equating perhaps to the Throne Room in European palaces. The name of this room, the Salon of the Morning Sun, derives from the painting on the ceiling of Aurora, Roman goddess of the dawn, who renews herself every morning and flies across the sky announcing the arrival of the sun. Interestingly, the flowering branches around the edges of this painting are cherry blossoms, which theme has been picked up by the design of the carpet, which is woven from 47 different shades of purple.
At either end of this room, in the curved section of the ceiling above the columns, there is a painting of a lion with a chain in its mouth, between two suits of Japanese armor, and below a Japanese helmet. The eyes of the lion are trompe l’oeil and appear to follow the viewer around the room. In the corners, the coats of arms are the three leaves with three flower spikes (with 5, 7 and 5 flowers) of the paulownia tree, which is one of the symbols of the Imperial Family and is now also used by the Japanese government. It is included as part of the Order of the Rising Sun.