Empress Kōjun

(March 6, 1903 - June 16, 2000) was an empress consort of Japan. Born , she was the consort of Emperor Shōwa and the mother of the present Emperor (Akihito). Her posthumous name, Kōjun, means "fragrant purity".

Empress Kōjun was empress consort (kōgō) from 25 December 1926 to 7 January 1989, making her the longest lived empress consort in Japanese history.

Early life

Princess Nagako was born on 6 March 1903 in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi (1873 - 1929), by his wife, Chikako (1879 - 1956), the 7th daughter of Prince Shimazu Tadayoshi, former lord of Satsuma, 29th and last daimyo of the line. Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni, a son of Prince Kuni Asahiko, was the head of one eleven cadet branches of the Imperial Family during the Meiji and Taishō periods. Princess Nagako attended the Girls' Department of Peers' School in Tokyo (now Gakushuin) with her first cousin, Princess Masako Nashimoto, who became Crown Princess Bangja of Korea.

Marriage and Children

The January 1919 engagement of Princess Nagako to her distant cousin (then-Crown Prince Hirohito, the future Shōwa Emperor), was unusual in two respects. First, she was a princess of the Imperial line (albeit a minor one), whereas for centuries the chief consorts of Japanese emperors and crown princes had come from one of the five senior branches of the Fujiwara clan (Konoe, Ichijō, Nijō, Takatsukasa, and Kujō), the most illustrious families of the court nobility or kuge. Second, although Princess Nagako's father was an offshoot of the Imperial family, her mother descended from daimyo, the feudal or military aristocracy. Princess Nagako married Crown Prince Hirohito on 26 January 1924 and became Crown Princess of Japan. She became Empress upon Hirohito's accession to the throne on 25 December 1925. The Imperial couple had seven children, five daughters and two sons:

1. Princess Teru (Shigeko) (照宮成子 teru no miya shigeko), 9 December 1925 - 23 July 1961; married Prince Higashikuni Morihiro (he lost his title in 1947, due to the American reforms of the Imperial Household, and his wife became Mrs. Higashikuni as a result)
2. Princess Hisa (Sachiko) (久宮祐子 hisa no miya sachiko), 10 September 1927 - 8 March 1928
3. Princess Taka (Kazuko) (孝宮和子 taka no miya kazuko), 30 September 1929 - 28 May 1989; married Takatsukasa Toshimichi
4. Princess Yori (Atsuko) (順宮厚子 yori no miya atsuko), born 7 March 1931; married Ikeda Takamasa
5. Crown Prince Tsugu (Akihito) (継宮明仁 tsugu no miya akihito) became the present Emperor of Japan, Akihito, born 23 December 1933
6. Prince Yoshi (Masahito) (義宮正仁 yoshi no miya masahito), born 28 November 1935, titled Prince Hitachi (常陸宮 hitachi no miya) since 1 October 1964
7. Princess Suga (Takako) (清宮貴子 suga no miya takako), born 3 March 1939; married Shimazu Hisanaga.

The daughters who lived to adulthood, left the Imperial family as a result of the American reforms of the Japanese Imperial Household in October 1947 (in the case of Princess Teru) or under the terms of the 1947 Imperial Household Law at the moment of their subsequent marriages (in the cases of Princesses Yori, Taka, and Suga). In both cases, since they married men who were or who would become commoners, they lost their titles of Princess as well as their Imperial status.

Life as empress

Although she performed her ceremonial duties as Empress in a traditional way and attended special ceremonies such as those for the 2600th anniversary of the legendary foundation of the Empire of Japan in 1940 or the conquest of Singapore in 1942 , the Empress was the first Japanese Imperial Consort to travel abroad. She accompanied Emperor Shōwa on his European tour in 1971 and later on his State Visit to the United States in 1975. She became known as the "smiling Empress".

After the Emperor's death on 7 January 1989, she assumed the title of Empress Dowager. At that time, she was in failing health herself and did not attend her husband's funeral. Her last public appearance was in 1988. She was in seclusion for the rest of her life.

At the time of her death at the age of 97 in 2000, she had been an empress for 74 years. Emperor Akihito granted his mother the posthumous title of Empress Kōjun. Her final resting place is in a mausoleum near that of her husband, Hirohito.

Titles and Styles

• Her Imperial Highness Princess Nagako Kuni (1903-1924)
• Her Imperial Highness The Crown Princess of Japan (1924-1926)
• Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of Japan (1926-1989)
• Her Imperial Majesty The Empress Dowager of Japan (1989-2000)
• Her Imperial Majesty Empress Kōjun of Japan (Posthumous Name) (2000)

See also

• Japanese empresses

External links

• Kunaicho: Empress Kojun
• BBC News: Japan mourns Empress Nagako
• BBC News: In pictures: Japan's imperial funeral