Preface: I'm not Japanese, I'm just passionate about writing my fics the most historically accurate possible. Therefore there might be errors.
In the Taisho era (July the 30th 1912 to December the 25th 1926) saw the rise of shinto wedding ceremonies (神前結婚 shinzen kekkon, literally “marriage before the gods”) after the marriage of crown prince Yoshihito (future emperor Taisho) to princess Sadako Kujo in Meiji 33 (1900) with a shinto rite at the imperial palace.
Afterwards, common people started celebrating shinto weddings at the Hibiya Daijingu shrine (nowadays Tokyo Daijingu shrine).
What a shinto wedding ceremony consist of?
There's first a purification ritual (修祓 shubatsu), where a priest (神主 kannushi), assisted by shrine maidens (巫女 miko), purifies the soul of the couple from guilt, bad luck and uncleanliness with a wooden wand with paper streamers (大幣 oonusa), followed by a shinto prayer ( 祝詞奏上 noritosoujou) to thank the gods and wish the newly wedded a happy marriage.
Third comes the drinking of the sacred sake (神酒 miki), that can happen in two different ways:
三献の儀 sankon no gi, literally cerimony of the three cups - the groom starts drinking the first cup which his refilled and passed to the bride to drink, then the bride starts drinking the second cup which his refilled and passed to the groom to drink, then the groom starts drinking the third cup which his refilled and passed to the bride to drink.
三々九度 sansankudo, literally three three nine times - the husband drinks the first cup in three sips, then the wife drinks the second cup in three sips, then the husband drinks the third cup in three sips.
(I've found different instructions for both cup ceremonies, so I'm a bit lost on what actually happens)
It takes around 20 to 30 minutes for the shinto ceremony to be completed.
Nowadays it's more complex, with ring exchange and vowes.
What did the bride and groom wear?
The bride will wear different layers of kimono, the outermost layer being either an over-kimono (打ち掛け uchikake), a formal kimono of heavy brocade in red, white or black and reminiscent of samurai women wear; or a white kimono (白無垢shiromoku), representing the pure innocence of the bride.
Also the bride will wear on her head a cover: either a horn-hiding headdress (角隠し tsunokakushi) made of a rectangular piece of cloth, to hide the metaphorical horns of jealousy, ego and selfishness of the bride and to symbolise her resolve to become a gentle and obedient wife; or a cotton hood (綿帽子 wataboshi), an all-white hood or cowl which purpose is to hide the face of the bride to others except the groom until the end of the ceremony. The wataboshi is worn outside and accompanied only by the shiromoku, and removed during indoor receptions.
The groom will wear a hip-length black jacket with the family crest (紋付羽織 montsuki haori) and pants (袴 hakama), tied in the front with a cord (羽織紐 haori himo).
Did I say common people at the beginning? Actually, let me correct myself. In the Taisho period the shi to ceremony was reserved to the elite of the society like military officers, bureaucrats and university professors.
Now the real question is: what did ordinary people do?
Usually the couple got together through an organised meeting (お見合い omiai, normally translated as arranged marriage but it really doesn't correspond to the western meaning of the words, so I preferred to translate it differently), although the couple generally already knew each other at least by sight and sealed the deal through a matchmaker.
A man would court a woman and sleep at her house if he was accepted. After both families would accept, there would be a formal marriage and the husband would commute to the wife’s house (夜這い yobai) even for several years before she could join him in his house, possibly with their children, either because he has become the head of the family or his mother has died.
Commoners usually performed simple ceremonies at the house of the groom, without a priest or officiant.
The day before the wedding, the bride’s belongings would be brought to the groom's house.
The bride would arrive at the groom's house in a chair palanquin (駕籠 kago) and received by the servants there
Then there would be a sake drinking ceremony (see sansakudo), a change of dress for the bride and everyone on both family sides would drink sake before the wedding dinner.
At the end of the day the mother of the groom would give the newly wedded couple a final cup of sake with her blessing.
The day after the wedding, the bride would receive her friends and relations. The third day would have her visiting her old family.
This is what I managed to resume for a Taisho era wedding.
Shinto wedding on Wikipedia in English
Shinto wedding on Wikipedia in French (different informations from the English article)
Japanese wedding ceremony on cotoclub.com
Japanese weddings: practices and pitfalls on nippon.com (more about contemporary ceremonies and behaviours to keep)
The ceremonies of a Japanese marriage on oldphotosjapan.com (ACTUAL COLLOTYPE PRINTS FROM 1905! Just loved looking at them!)
