Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko Picture Thread


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A girl from the former nobility, Hatsuko Kitashirakawa, who was rumoured to be Akihito´s bride in 1958. At the time, Akihito and Michiko already knew each other. In August 1958, the IHA gave the o.k. to their marriage, after checking Michiko´s family background.

Crown Prince Akihito and Miss Michiko Shoda at the tennis court
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Akihito and Michiko as young couple

Then-Crown Princess Michiko with little Naruhito
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Then-Crown Princess Michiko with little Sayako, sleeping

The queen meets then-Crown Prince Akihito and then-Crown Princess Michiko with their three children

Empress Michiko with her harp
 
Thank you so much for posting these videos and photos - I never tire of seeing the Emperor and Empress and these images are fascinating!
 
Then-Crown Princess Michiko
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Then-Crown Princess Michiko with fourteen-month-old Naruhito
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Then-Crown Prince Akihito and then-Crown Princess Michiko with Princes Naruhito and Fumihito, 1965
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Then-Crown Princess Michiko with baby Fumihito

Princes Naruhito and Fumihito 1965

Then-Crown Princess Michiko with little Sayako 1971

Then-Crown Prince Akihito and then-Crown Princess Michiko with little Sayako in the seventies

Then-Crown Princess Michiko with little Sayako 1981

An interesting pic of Crown Princess Michiko on a bicycle. The man before her who carries little Naruhito could be her father but I am not sure.
 
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ChiaraC, thank you for all these lovely photos of the Emperor and Empress! I especially like the one at the seaside :)
 
Older pictures of the Imperial Couple.

ChiaraC--thank you for the pictures. Some of them do tell a story. The picture of the then-Crown Prince and Princess with Sayako in the mid-seventies going to a shrine looks striking because it shows how fatigued and distressed Michiko looks (sorry for the mis-spellings). Were the seventies worse for her than earlier?
I also love the picture of little Sayako lying with her head on her mothers lap with her dog and doll on the bench. Very cute.:flowers:
 
Thank you for your kind words, Lee-Z and mjkimura1976! :flowers: I agree, the pic at the seaside is really charming!

mjkimura1976 said:
ChiaraC--thank you for the pictures. Some of them do tell a story. The picture of the then-Crown Prince and Princess with Sayako in the mid-seventies going to a shrine looks striking because it shows how fatigued and distressed Michiko looks (sorry for the mis-spellings). Were the seventies worse for her than earlier?
Click to expand...
Not that I know of. The bullying she had to suffer from must have always been pretty much the same, according to reports. But maybe at some point the “always the same” simply began to wear her out? I mean, Michiko (incidentally, very much like Masako) must have felt that she was “born to succeed” before she married into the imperial family. One of her teachers told her once: “Your only fault is that you have none.” She had been somewhat of a star among her classmates, and basically, seemed to “have it all”. I am sure that, after the wedding, when she found that her mother-in-law did not take kindly to her, she did not give up easily but thought that if she´d but be kind and patient and bear sons, things would get better for her in time. Maybe it was during the seventies that she began to understand that nothing would really change for her as long as she was crown princess, that there was nothing she could do but wait... :ermm:
But that´s just a guess, of course.

***

Beautiful Michiko: 1 ** 2 ** 3 ** 4 ** 5
 
Yes, I would like to thank ChiaraC for posting all these lovely photos, which are so interesting and wonderful to see.
Empress Michiko has always been such a tremendously beautiful woman and she continues to be even now after all these years of the heavy burdens she has carried. Her beauty is not just skin deep or related solely to her exquisite clothes - her beauty has a purity about it, n inner beauty that exudes on the outside.
 
Jacknch said:
Yes, I would like to thank ChiaraC for posting all these lovely photos, which are so interesting and wonderful to see.
Empress Michiko has always been such a tremendously beautiful woman and she continues to be even now after all these years of the heavy burdens she has carried. Her beauty is not just skin deep or related solely to her exquisite clothes - her beauty has a purity about it, n inner beauty that exudes on the outside.
Click to expand...
You are very welcome, and I quite agree! :flowers:

Crown Princess Michiko in kimono

Emperor and empress
 
Asahi gallery of 1989-1990 when Emperor Showa died to Emperor Akihito's enthronement. Not sure how long these photos will be available.
Asahi's gallery of the 1962 Kumamoto visit now requires membership/subscription when you click to enlarge the thumbnails.
 
Photo of young Akihito snapped by O'Donnell retrieved: The Asahi Shimbun
A recently discovered picture of then Crown Prince Akihito was taken by Joe O’Donnell, the photographer famed for his chilling shot of a boy carrying his dead brother after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

The black-and-white photo shows Akihito in a suit and necktie with a gentle expression. It was likely taken at the White House during Akihito’s first visit to the United States.

The photograph was sent to Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko in June.

At age 19, Akihito toured the United States and 13 nations in Europe between March and October 1953. During his visit to Britain, Akihito attended the coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of his father, posthumously known as Emperor Showa.

In September, Akihito arrived in the United States and met with President Dwight Eisenhower.

[...]

O’Donnell, who died in 2007, was a White House photographer when Akihito met with Eisenhower.

Although the picture of Akihito was initially owned by the photographer, he presented it to a Japanese friend during a visit to Japan to organize a photo exhibition in 1992.

The friend gave the photo to Makoto Yamazaki, now 81, who lives in Morioka and was friendly with O’Donnell, in February this year.

The image was eventually delivered to Akihito and Michiko by Chieko Suemori, a 78-year-old picture book editor in Hachimantai, Iwate Prefecture.

Suemori said Michiko said it is “a nice photo” when she looked at her husband in the picture.

[...]
Click to expand...
http://www.asahicom.jp/ajw/articles/images/AS20190730003005_comm.jpg
http://www.asahicom.jp/ajw/articles/images/AS20190730003008_comm.jpg
 
That's a wonderful photo, and an interesting story about how it came into the Emperor Emeritus's hands.

I like the suit, too. :flowers:
 
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