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Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. -Virginia Woolf
After looking at all these pictures, you realize how truly elegant Empress Michiko is. I would love to learn more about her, such as how she and Emperor Akihito met and whether there was any opposition to the Empress when she became engaged to the Emperor. Or was she welcomed immediately into the imperial family and by the Japanese public? I know that in another one of the pictures it is mentioned that the Emperor and Emperess met on a tennis court, are they both sporty individuals?
Originally posted by Alexandria@Sep 6th, 2003 - 11:38 am After looking at all these pictures, you realize how truly elegant Empress Michiko is. I would love to learn more about her, such as how she and Emperor Akihito met and whether there was any opposition to the Empress when she became engaged to the Emperor. Or was she welcomed immediately into the imperial family and by the Japanese public? I know that in another one of the pictures it is mentioned that the Emperor and Emperess met on a tennis court, are they both sporty individuals?
It was the tennis court in Karuizawa that Miss Michiko Shoda met the Emperor Akihito for the first time. She and the Emperor Akihito participated in the convention of the tennis opened there. It was the game of doubles. her group and the Emperor Akihito -- constructing -- it advanced favorably. And they were pitched against each other in the finals. And her group has won. The Emperor Akihito asked the surrounding man about her, after the game finished. It was his love at first sight. Then, it is said that he took her photograph on that spot, obtain her consent. It was one of the hobbies of his to take a photograph. (This photograph was later decorated on his desk, after their formal engagement announcement.)
She did not think then that the Crown Prince Akihito had good will in himself at all. It is because the Crown Princess candidate was considered to be the woman of the old nobility graduate in Japan of those days. However, the Crown Prince answered like this at the interview after marriage. " In order to feel national feelings familiar, I thought that the woman of a private sector graduate was suitable to my wife. Probably, in the woman of an upper class graduate, it will be difficult, in order to realize this."
Then, she was added to a Crown Princess candidate's list of names by his intention. However, her name was in the list of names from the first. The Imperial Household Agency had asked some famous universities in Japan in advance, if it recommends a suitable woman to the Crown Princess from its university.
"Seishin" of the distinguished family private women's college in Japan was recommending her. She graduated from the department of English of a university with the president. And the graduate spokesperson was worked. The speech of the farewell speech was made in English. Moreover, it had acted as student council length during enrollment in school. Her parents' home was very rich. Her father was the president of the big business leading in Japan. Moreover, she had experience which lived the time of childhood in Europe, although it is a short period of time. Most results of their university days were A. It was preeminent for athletic ability and played an active part as an anchor of a relay. A hobby is a piano, drawnning, reading, tennis, skiing, etc. And she was very beautiful. She had so natural dignity.
It carries out soon. Her house had secret percussion from the Imperial Household Agency. However, she refused it at first. However, the Crown Prince's intention is hard and, also after that, percussion continued repeatedly. It leaked to mass communications and she became a woman at the time suddenly. The days always hung around by the cameraman continued. Her parents made her leave for the long-term Europe travel in order to have the Crown Prince give up. However, His Imperial Highness's will did not change. Moreover, it decided for her to also receive his proposal of marriage during a travel.
The Crown Prince carried out the final proposal of marriage to her by telephone. Seemingly, the couple was not able to meet openly until the formal engagement openly. It was decided by the Imperial Household of Japan of those days. It is said that she replied to His Imperial Highness like this. "I would like to say my answer to your proposal of marriage looking at your eyes."
Originally posted by Alexandria@Sep 6th, 2003 - 11:38 am After looking at all these pictures, you realize how truly elegant Empress Michiko is. I would love to learn more about her, such as how she and Emperor Akihito met and whether there was any opposition to the Empress when she became engaged to the Emperor. Or was she welcomed immediately into the imperial family and by the Japanese public? I know that in another one of the pictures it is mentioned that the Emperor and Emperess met on a tennis court, are they both sporty individuals?
Future was serious again. She was the first woman who would marry with the Imperial Family from a private sector. Therefore, she had the greatest support from Japanese people. However, the opposite voices went up from the Imperial Household. The late Emperor Hirohito controlled this opposite voice. It is said that the late Emperor Hirohito said a word like this. "If the Crown Prince decided it, there is no objection." At last the couples' engagement was announced formally openly.
Japan was wrapped in the welcome mood which mentions a country. The woman who imitates her hairstyle, a dress, etc. overflowed all over the country. It was called "Mitchie fever." It was considered the beginning of the new Imperial Household that she revives for Japanese people. She was married to the Imperial Household in response to national uncanny blessing. It is said that this was a thing more than Masako.
However, actually, there were many imperial house's people who do not regard her as the woman being good within the Imperial Household. She always took pains very much to study the custom of the Imperial Court, after being married. The Japanese Imperial Household has the language used only in the Imperial Household. In addition, many traditional Imperial Courts -- many events occur.
It was a nurse's abolition that have surprised the Imperial Household of those days most. This was the common opinion of Crown Prince and Crown Princess. They brought up their children (Crown prince Naruhito, Prince Akishino and Princess Nori) by them. It is said that His Imperial Highness said to her like this before being married. "I was brought up into the nurse with the custom of the Imperial Court. Therefore, I do not know a thing called a warm home. So, I had decided to never die until I made my home." Hearing this, she is telling the friend like this later. "I thought that it was the saddest language in the language which I have experienced until now." Therefore, The couple very prized making their warm home. And even now, to be sure, this continues. Even now, Emperor and Empress bonds are very strong.
Their home was yearning of Japanese people and was a model those days. When she visited to overseas, she summarized her educational plan to her children in the loose-leaf notebook, and it was passed to her children's handed care staff before she goes to overseas to pay the official visit. This serves as a model of mothers of those days, and even now, is sold at Japan as a book.
The efforts to the couples' home were rewarded. The Crown Prince Naruhito answered like this at the interview recently. "It is thankful to my parents HM Emperor and HM Empress for having brought me up at the truely warm home where parents gathered from the bottom of my heart."
Akihito and Michiko still plays tennis. They carried out to rest to Karuizawa in summer after marriage almost every year. And they always played tennis together where they are the tennis courts which met for the first time. They visited Karuizawa for the first time in 13 years this year, and the couple played in that tennis court.
They like a sport very much. Skiing was also enjoyed when young. Horse riding is also carried out.
They seem to be a truly soul mate to Japanese people. She is the Empress currently most adored by Japanese people in all the past Empresses.
Is my text the answer of your question? Does the text of my English be understood? It is very anxious about me. Because my English is weak.
Originally posted by jun5@Sep 6th, 2003 - 4:56 pm Is my text the answer of your question? Does the text of my English be understood? It is very anxious about me. Because, I am since English is weak.
jun5, your English was fine as you have done a wonderful job of explaining the Emperor and Emperess' courtship and relationship. I have learned so much. Thank you. :flower:
I found several things particularly interesting. One that the Imperial Palace asked universities to recommend suitable women for the future Emperor. While he ultimately married for love, it seems almost like an arrangement.
And I found the idea of Mitchie fever quite amusing ... So, Emperess Michiko was the original Diana?!
Originally posted by Alexandria+Sep 7th, 2003 - 8:17 am--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Alexandria @ Sep 7th, 2003 - 8:17 am)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--jun5@Sep 6th, 2003 - 4:56 pm Is my text the answer of your question? Does the text of my English be understood? It is very anxious about me. Because, I am since English is weak.
jun5, your English was fine as you have done a wonderful job of explaining the Emperor and Emperess' courtship and relationship. I have learned so much. Thank you. :flower:
I found several things particularly interesting. One that the Imperial Palace asked universities to recommend suitable women for the future Emperor. While he ultimately married for love, it seems almost like an arrangement.
And I found the idea of Mitchie fever quite amusing ... So, Emperess Michiko was the original Diana?!
I was very glad to have heard your reply.
Marriage for love was seldom welcomed in the Imperial Household of those days. Arranged marriage was natural in Japan of those days. As for it, the civilian was also together. He discovered his soul mate by himself before the Imperial Household Agency sounds him about a arranged marriage. I think that it was the biggest fortunate for him, for Japan or Japanese people, and also for the Imperial Household.
And yes! I think Empress Michiko was the original Diana of those days. Japanese people welcomed her from the bottom of its heart. And she has not betrayed expectation of people once until now. She was always woonderful the Crown Princess for Japanese people, and it is always the wonderful Empress now. She is really the amazing wonderful woman. So, Japanese people are thankful to the Emperor all the time to that the Emperor chose her as his wife.
Address by Her Majesty the Empress of Japan
At the Opening Ceremony of the Jubilee Congress to Commemorate
the 50th Anniversary of the
International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)
Sunday, 29 September, 2002
It was a most unexpected pleasure for me to be asked to join Mrs. Mubarak and Mrs. Dreifuss as a Patron of the IBBY Basel Congress celebrating the 50th anniversary of IBBYs foundation. I am happy to be here at the opening ceremony to meet with you all, who have been devoting yourselves so sincerely to the common cause of books and children in so many parts of the world.
Congratulations on the Golden Jubilee of the IBBY!
Fifty-seven years ago, when World War II came to an end, Jella Lepman developed an irresistible desire to provide books for children living in Germanys impoverished post-war society. She sent a plea to the world, that books then being read by children in the free world be sent to the German children, to feed their mind and uplift their spirit. In response to her plea, about eight-hundred books from twenty counties reached her.
According to the newly issued edition of A Bridge of Childrens Books by Jella Lepman, these books toured many cities in Germany, passing through the hands of more than a million children and adults, and sometimes seen clutched in tight embrace by the children. Many of these books came back with pages worn and torn ― the state of well loved books which Lepman truly admired.
Grown-ups who have found the joy of reading in childhood and experienced the power of the printed words wish that the same opportunities be given to every child, especially to those who have to survive difficult circumstances, as they are the ones who need mental and spiritual sustenance that books can offer most. It must be the wish of such grown-ups that prompted the hearty response to Lepmans plea some fifty years ago, and it must also be this wish which has kept IBBY people to carry on its work for the past 50 years.
My first involvement with IBBY came around towards the end of the 1980s, when the Japanese Board on Books for Young People (JBBY) asked me if they could entrust to me the translation of Mado Michios poems into English, as the poet was selected to be the candidate for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in the year 1990. Several collections of Mados poems were delivered to me, together with a letter explaining that rather than winning the Award, the aim was to let it be known among IBBY people that we had such a poet in Japan. The post-script of the letter said that unfortunately there would be no payment for my work!
It was not that I was much experienced in translating poetry into English. Up to then, I had translated only three or four poems a year, for reading before the Poetry Reading Circle in Tokyo to which I had been invited for over ten years. The ones that I had translated were mostly poems I came across while I was rearing my three children.
In those days when my children were growing up, I was filled with great joy, but quite often I would also feel some indefinable anxieties. The innocent life in my arms seemed to be a precious treasure given to me in trust by someone. I think I was then feeling both the sense of awe towards the life of the child and the fear to take the daunting responsibility to hold that precious life in my care. Those were the days when I could not help but pray that the world into which our children grow to live may be peaceful, for every turbulent incident in the world seemed so close to me then. It was during such period that I translated into English some of the poems that appealed to me and shared them with the members of the Poetry Reading Circle.
Little by little, I set myself to translating Mados poems. With my limited abilities, the progress was slow, and it was only in the fourth year that I had finally completed the translation of 80 of his poems. Through this work, I came to know JBBY, and later some of the IBBY people from other countries.
Gradually I learned that the members of IBBY cover many fields. They include authors, illustrators, translators, editors, publishers, researchers, educators, teachers and librarians. One person I met in Helsinki, who had worked for long years with IBBY, was a puppeteer who ran a charming little puppet theater. I came to understand that what unites IBBY people is the common aspiration that children may encounter good books, and that the books may bring children in different parts of the world closer to each other. Thus IBBY began to reveal itself to me as a global network of people involved in the work that has something to do with children and books, working in earnest with worldwide perspective.
My link with IBBY went a step further, when I was asked to deliver a keynote speech at the 26th Congress in New Delhi. The theme of the Congress was Peace through Childrens Books, and I spoke about my memories of childhood reading, especially of the time towards the end of World War II when I was evacuated from the city.
At that time, there were no more than four or five books within my reach. Among the few I was fortunate enough to own, there was a book on Japanese myths and legends. It gave me, though in a very vague way, a certain feeling that I was living with the past at the forefront of our peoples history. I think I gained, through this reading, a sense of belonging,and it helped me later to develop an enjoyable way towards understanding other countries and peoples first through their myths, legends and folktales.
There were also two volumes of Masterpieces of World Literature for Boys and Girls which I relished. They contained stories, excerpts from novels― not abridgements, ― poems and letters of outstanding writers from many lands including even some from our enemy countries at that time.
These two volumes taught me there were many sorrows in the world that I had not known, and I learned how intensely people other than myself could feel, and how deeply they could be hurt. I also came to realize that in order to live, one has to bear lifes complexities. Together with this, reading brought me a real spiritual uplift. It planted seedlings within me that would grow reaching out towards joy. Indeed, while living in the countryside during the war time, I was meeting both my remote ancestors and strangers from other lands on the bridge of childrens books. How fortunate I was to have someone who slipped a book or two into my hands when he visited me at our place of wartime evacuation.
When I was invited to attend this Congress, I hesitated at first thinking that I lacked professional qualifications. I asked myself what I could do for the Congress, and one answer I could come up with was based on the fact that I am one of the many who were greatly benefited by the books read as a child. I thought that I could at least share with you my deep gratitude for books, and I also could convey my appreciation to you for what all of you are doing to bring books and children together. And that set me on the journey to Basel. Perhaps it was the little girl who still lives in me who urged me to come here to attend the Congress.
I trust that IBBY will continue to perform its activities for many years to come, as there will always be people who believe both in the values of books and the potentialities of children. The theme of the Congress Children and Books － a Worldwide Challenge seems to me to be an expression of the strong sense of mission felt by the people who support IBBY.
All of us are aware of the fact that there are children in the world today who are not only deprived of books, but even opportunities to learn how to read and write due to economic or social reasons. There are also children who are forced to spend their days in fear and dread in the areas of strife. My heart grieves to think that there are too many such children.
I find it encouraging though, that many of the IBBY members have already given thought to the fact and have been putting their thoughts into action. It will not do for us only to shed tears over the plight of these children, and just pity them as poor unfortunates. Rather, I would place my hope in such children, for they might lead our world of tomorrow with the new wisdom that only those who have experienced utmost sorrow and pain and yet survived them could possess. Please trust the great potentialities of those children who are struggling with adversity, and please never lose them out of your sight.
There is one poem I read while I was bringing up my children that I can never forget. The poet spoke to me from afar telling that a mother, though she may be uneasy and weak-hearted, should never let her shadow fall upon the newly born, for the future of the child holds enormous potentialities.
The poem begins like this:
On the cheeks
Of your innocent newly born,
Mothers,
Do not drop
Tears
Of your own despair.
Though now these cheeks
Are red and small,
Hardly more than damson-plums,
Who knows that someday
They would not flush and glow
In a battle
For humanity.
Mrs. Maissen,
I can well imagine how much thoughts and care you have put into the planning and preparation of the Congress and how wholeheartedly you have been working till today. We all appreciate your dedication to IBBY, and I thank you very much for inviting me to be a part of this significant gathering.
I hope that for all of you the Basel Congress will be an enjoyable and fulfilling occasion. An international conference is a wonderful opportunity for people with common interests and aspirations to get together regardless of nationalities to share experiences and ideas. I hope each and every one of you will find yourself enriched and strengthened and your hope renewed for your mission, when you leave here.
I am afraid that I myself am not in a position to be able to fully participate in the various activities of IBBY. But I feel that after experiencing this Jubilee Congress, I shall be able to better follow your work and continue giving moral support, with a deeper understanding towards your commitment to bring books and children together in so many different areas of the world.
Thank you for posting such lovely pictures!
In some of these pictures, we can see that the Emperor Akihito led Empress Michiko by the hand or held her on the back. Recently, I noticed the same thing from the TV news in the web. I thought that physical contact in public was not allowed by the conservative Imperial Household Agency.
Does the Emperor always do this? I mean, it's very nature and human to do so. It will be very nice of him to continue to do this if it is forbidden by the IHA. What are the comments of the public? How about other members of the imperial family?
Originally posted by wlee@Oct 18th, 2003 - 8:20 pm Thank you for posting such lovely pictures!
In some of these pictures, we can see that the Emperor Akihito led Empress Michiko by the hand or held her on the back. Recently, I noticed the same thing from the TV news in the web. I thought that physical contact in public was not allowed by the conservative Imperial Household Agency.
Does the Emperor always do this? I mean, it's very nature and human to do so. It will be very nice of him to continue to do this if it is forbidden by the IHA. What are the comments of the public? How about other members of the imperial family?
wlee
Hi, wlee !
Thank you for youe reply for my posted pics about Emperor and Empress.
I reply to your question about Imperial Family in the range which I know. I'm sorry if you do not understand my English, since I don't speak English fluently...
Japanese people did not have the custom which connects a hand in public. Recently, the Japanese sweetheart or couple become to kissed , connected the hand in public. However, elderly couples do not still do these. They consider it mean that they do these acts in public for them. If they kiss in public, almost all Japanese will glower eyebrows to the act. Those acts are not visible to a lovely scene for an elderly Japanese.
However, The Emperor and the Empress were performing it from their newlywed time. When they go up and down a hill, or when taking a ship, the Emperor holds out a hand automatically to the Empress. The Empress also grasps the Emperor's hand automatically. Moreover, when they see off a guest of the nation at the porch of the Imperial Palace after a banquet finishes, they have connected their hand mostly. And they return into the Imperial Palace, with their hand connected while smiling and suiting. It is a very lovely scene. But not almost all Japanese do such a thing. It is one custom in the history of long Japan.
I regard that the Emperor and the Empress connect a hand in public as the Imperial Household Agency having not forbidden. However, if they kiss in public, the Imperial Household Agency will consider being confused by it then. Anyway, the Emperor and the Empress always connect a hand with nature, and they gaze at each other eyes mutually, they smile at nature and suit it.
However, other Imperial Families do not do it. I have not seen the place where the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess have connected the hand in public. It is also Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko. The late Prince Takamado and Princess Hisako might do it, maybe... since The late Prince Takamado and his waife Princess Hisako had loved each other very much. And they made the model European and American husband and wife.
Anyway, without Emperor and Empress, The Japanese Imperial Family don't have connected the hand in public.
I would like to see their lovely scene! But it is still very difficult probrem for Japan, since if a young Japanese's sweethearts kiss in public, an elderly Japanese will complain to it...
Thank you for your detailed explanation. It is indeed a very sweet thing to see the older people act in such way. You can see the love in their eyes.
Don't worry about your English. I understand exactly what you mean. Thank you very much. Keep on writing and posting.
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko: Current Events
Welcome to Part 1 of the Emperor Akihito & Empress Michiko thread where you may post recent news, pictures, comments and articles. Please remember to follow the Attachment and Copyright Rules. Happy posting!
From Yahoo! News (picture AP via Yahoo!):Monday August 15. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, left, delivers a speech as Emperor Akihito, second right top, and Empress Michiko, far right top, look on during the government-sponsored memorial service for both military and civilian war dead, to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Tokyo's Budokan martial arts hall.
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