ENGI SHIKI

The Engi-shiki, Procedures (or Institutes) of the Engi Era (901-923) was a 50-volumeritsuryotext which included legal and administrative procedures and the ritual and ceremonial calendar of the imperial court (e.g. the procedures for the institution of thesaigu). It was completed in 927 and promulgated forty years later. The Engishiki preserves the text of 27 ancientnoritoor ritual prayers used in court ceremonial and it refers to 3,132 officially recognised shrines, later proudly referred to asshiki-nai-sha. The Engi-shiki ritual calendar (see Nenchu gyoji) was followed in reduced form in theTokugawaera and replaced in theMeijiperiod by a different framework of thirteen imperial rites celebrated as national Shinto holidays.