Pre-wedding Events of Princess Sayako and Yoshiki Kuroda of Japan
TOKYO (AFP) - Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, will marry a 39-year-old official working with Tokyo's metropolitan government, press reports said.
TOKYO, JAPAN: This combo picture dated 14 November 2004 in Tokyo shows Japanese Princess Sayako (R), 35, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, and Yoshiki Kuroda, 39, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official. It was announced 14 November that Japanese Princess Sayako would marry Kuroda - news that was certain to perk up a nation recently hit by a series of deadly earthquakes. Getty images
1. Polfoto 13-11-2004 ** FILE ** Japan's Princess Nori displays her Japanese dancing skills during a performance in Tokyo in this September 5, 1998, file photo. The 35-year-old daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, will marry Yoshiki Kuroda, an official of the Tokyo metropolitan government, Japan's Kyodo News service reported on Sunday November 14, 12004, quoting well-placed sources. Popularly known as Princess Nori, Princess Sayako will be engaged to Kuroda, 39, the sources said.
2-5. Japan's Princess Sayako shares a light moment with a participant after a student speech contest in Tokyo, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004.
6. Tokyo Metropolitan government official Yoshiki Kuroda, 39, speaks to reporters in Tokyo, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. Japan's Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, will announce her plan to marry Kuroda in the coming weeks, an official said Sunday.
The guy looks rather shrewd, compare to genuine Princess Nori. Anyone got that impression? Though she will lose her Princess title(which I do not agree it should be, such an sexism), I guess he is marrying up. Well, I heard he is also an aristcrat(thus being chosen), but still.
A liberating moment for Japan's Princess Sayako
Hellomagazine.com
26 NOVEMBER 2004
Whether it was because she was performing a task close to her heart – she once worked as a researcher at an ornithology institute – or a reflection of her recent engagement, Japan's Princess Sayako seemed aglow with happiness as she released a duck into the Imperial Reserve outside Tokyo.
The 35-year-old princess is known for her love for animals – as a primary school student she wrote an essay about wanting to become a guide dog trainer – and continues to work with them whenever possible.
As the Emperor's only daughter, Sayako has been largely cut off from the outside world. Her wedding to Tokyo planning officer Yoshiki Kuroda, 39, will change all that, however.
In line with Imperial etiquette Sayako will lose her royal title when she marries her commoner fiancé. And while she will have to take on the burden of paying tax, she'll also acquire the right to vote and run for public office.
With both Sayako and her fiancé in their 30s, the union is a late one by Japanese standards. But the princess has never made any secret of her intention to "search in my own ways at my own pace," emphasising that: "Since it concerns my long future, I want to give much thought to it rather than simply hurrying."
The pair are reported to have met when Yoshiki visited the residence of Sayako's brother, Prince Fumihito, who was an old classmate. Since then the relationship has been kept under wraps, known only to a small circle within the imperial household.
With the question of royal succession still in the news – neither Crown Prince Naruhito or his brother Prince Akishino have a male heir – it is perhaps inevitable that this new union should also come under scrutiny. Royal watchers speculate whether, if Sayako were to give birth to a boy, it could be adopted by her elder brother. Such a move would call for the current ban on adoption within the royal family to be dropped.
1. The wild duck clasped gently in her hands, Princess Sayako prepares to free it into the imperial reserve
2. Beaming, the Emperor's only daughter boosts her feathered friend into the sky
3. While to date her life has been lived within the confines of the Imperial household, the 35-year-old royal's position will change significantly once she weds her commoner fiance
Gov't announces Princess Sayako to marry next year
(Kyodo) _ Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, will marry Yoshiki Kuroda, a Tokyo metropolitan government employee, next year, Imperial Household Grand Steward Toshio Yuasa announced Thursday.
The couple have known each other since childhood as Kuroda is a close friend of Prince Akishino, the younger of the princess's two elder brothers.
Sad news has forced them to cancel the official announcement of their engagement twice, but on Thursday Japan’s Princess Sayako and her husband to be, Yoshiki Kuroda, finally confirmed they are to be wed.
According to the palace, the emperor’s only daughter will marry urban planner Yoshiki "after the summer."
Press Conference by Her Imperial Highness Princess Nori and Mr. Yoshiki Kuroda
Press Conference by Her Imperial Highness Princess Nori and Mr. Yoshiki Kuroda on the Occasion of the Announcement of their Engagement
Question 2: (To Her Highness and Mr. Kuroda) Could you tell us specifically of your feelings during the time since you met, through your acquaintanceship, up to when you decided to become engaged?
Her Highness: In January last year, on the occasion of a tennis game and gathering in Akasaka hosted by His Highness Prince Akishino to commemorate the passing away of a person very close to him, I met, after a considerable lapse of time, Mr. Kuroda who was attending the gathering. When I was a primary school student, my impression of Mr Kurada was of a tall person with a serious face, but meeting him again after such a long time, his warm and smiling face as he joined a circle of people, remained in my mind, and I enjoyed my conversation with him. Since then, on most occasions we met at the residence of His Highness Prince Akishino. During these meetings, as we began to talk more, my feelings developed and thoughts of marriage began to deepen. By the beginning of this year they had become definite.
does anyone know who is designing her wedding gown?
She will wear two kind of gown,traditional japanese robe and wedding dress.
It is said that Itsuko Ueda,who has been the designer of Empress Michiko's clothes since 1976,will design Princess Sayako's wedding dress.(It is only rumor)
Because she always wear clothes designed by Itsuko Ueda,too.
And,She sometimes puts on even clothes of handed down of mother.
But,I don't think clothes designed by Itsuko Ueda is good...
They are very strange and like old ladies'.
Polfoto 19-03-2005 - Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito, left, and Crown Princess Masako arrive at Imperial Palace in Tokyo Saturday, March 19, 2005 to attend Princess Sayako's engagement rite. Sayako, only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, was formally engaged to Tokyo metropolitan government employee Yoshiki Kuroda in the Imperial rite. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
An appointed messenger from Yoshiki Kuroda is his cousin, Naoyuki Kuroda, 53, who leaves the Kuroda residence for the Imperial Palace to formally ask for the engagement. Kuroda holds a catalog for the items to present at the engagement rite.
1.In this photo released by the Imperial Household Agency, appointed messenger Naoyuki Kuroda, left, a cousin of Princess Sayako's fiance Yoshiki Kuroda, hands traditional engagement gifts to Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Toshio Yuasa during a betrothal ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo March 19, 2005.
2.Japan's Princess Sayako's fiance Yoshiaki Kuroda, second from right, and his mother Sumiko, right, bow as they arrive at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to meet with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko Saturday, March 19, 2005.
3.Japan's Princess Sayako's fiance Yoshiaki Kuroda, right, and his mother Sumiko see off Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko leaving a building on the compound of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo following their audience Saturday, March 19, 2005.
Caption:
TOKYO, JAPAN: Yoshiki Kuroda (R), fiance of Japanese Emperor Akihito's only daughter Sayako, accompanied by his mother Sumiko, leaves the Imperial Palace after they met with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko as Kuroda and Princess Sayako were formally engaged in Tokyo 19 March 2005. AFP PHOTO/POOL/Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)
TOKYO: Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Japan's emperor and empress, will get married in November, palace officials said Wednesday.
Sayako, 36, was engaged in March to 40-year-old city hall employee Yoshiki Kuroda.
Their wedding will take place at Tokyo's Imperial Hotel on Nov. 15, according to the Imperial Household Agency, which would not release other details.
The couple will wed in a Shinto ceremony in the presence of the emperor and the empress, said Japan's public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency.
Japanese had long been speculating about when Sayako, the last of the imperial couple's three children to remain single, would marry.
The couple announced their engagement in December following a discreet two-year courtship. Sayako and Kuroda knew each other as children and were reunited at a palace tennis party organized by Sayako's brother, Prince Akishino.
The law dictates that Sayako, as a woman born in the imperial family, will become a commoner after she marries, moving out of the palace and losing her royal title. Shinto is Japan's native religion. - AP
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