Empress Kōjun

Princess Nagako in 1910 as a child

Princess Nagako was born in Kuni-no-miya's family home in Tokyo, Japan on 6 March 1903, into one of the Ōke branches of the Imperial House of Japan, which were eligible to provide an heir to the throne of Japan (by adoption). She was therefore a princess by birth, as the daughter of Kuniyoshi, Prince Kuni (1873–1929) by his consort, Chikako (1879–1956). While her father was a scion of the imperial family itself, her mother descended from daimyōs, the feudal or military aristocracy.[3] Nagako would become one of the last Japanese who could remember what life was like inside the Japanese aristocracy in the years before the Second World War.[4]

As a young girl, Nagako attended the Girls' Department of Peers' School in Tokyo (now Gakushūin), which was a school set up especially for the daughters of the aristocracy and imperial family. Among her cohort was Crown Princess Bangja of Korea (then known as Princess Masako Nashimoto). Following her betrothal at age fourteen, Nagako was withdrawn from this school and began a six-year training program aimed at developing the accomplishments deemed necessary for an empress.[2]

Empress Nagako with her first son, Prince Akihito, in 1934

Nagako was betrothed to her distant cousin the Crown Prince Hirohito, later the Emperor Showa (1901–1989) at a very young age, in a match arranged by their parents, which was usual in Japanese society at that time.[note 1][5] Her lineage and her father's unblemished military career were the major considerations. In January 1919, the engagement of Princess Nagako to the then-Crown Prince Hirohito was announced. In a step away from tradition, Hirohito was allowed to choose his own bride. Nagako herself had no choice in the matter. In 1917, at the age of 14, she and other eligible women participated in a tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace while the Crown Prince watched unseen from behind a screen.[2] He eventually selected Nagako.[6]

Princess Nagako married the Crown Prince Hirohito on 26 January 1924 and became the Crown Princess of Japan.[1] She became the empress of Japan upon Hirohito's accession to the throne on 25 December 1926. Unlike his royal predecessors, Emperor Hirohito decided to abandon his 39 court concubines. Over the first decade of marriage, Empress Nagako gave birth to four daughters (see Issue). It was only on 23 December 1933, almost ten years after their wedding, that the young couple had a son, and gave Japan an heir, in the birth of Akihito (明仁), now the emeritus emperor.[2] In all, Hirohito and Nagako had seven children, five daughters and two sons. (see Issue)

Empress Nagako, the U.S. First Lady Betty Ford, Emperor Hirohito and the U.S. President Gerald Ford walking down the Cross Hall towards the East Room prior to a state dinner held at the White House in honor of the Japanese head of state. (1975)

Empress Nagako performed her ceremonial duties in a traditional manner. She initially came to live in the palace during the time when people spoke an archaic imperial form of Japanese that has largely disappeared.[4] Her role required her to attend 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.[7]

Nagako accompanied Emperor Hirohito on his European tour in 1971 and later on his state visit to the United States in 1975. She suffered a fall two years later, injuring her spine, and following another serious fall in 1980 was confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of her life.[8]

After the Emperor's death on 7 January 1989, she became empress dowager.[1] At that time, she was in failing health herself and did not attend her husband's funeral.[9] She was confined to a wheelchair and remained in seclusion for the rest of her life. In 1995, she became the longest-living dowager empress of Japan, breaking the record of Empress Kanshi, who had died 868 years earlier.[2]

Empress Kōjun's mausoleum in the Musashi Imperial Graveyard

At the time of her death at the age of 97 in 2000, Nagako had been an empress for 74 years. In her final days, the Imperial Household Agency announced that she was suffering from breathing problems but that the illness was not serious. Nagako died at 4:46 pm on 16 June 2000, with her family at her side.[4]

Emperor Akihito granted his mother the posthumous title of Empress Kōjun.[1] Her final resting place is in a mausoleum named Musashino no Higashi no Misasagi, near that of her husband within the Musashi Imperial Graveyard.[1]

Empress Kōjun and Emperor Shōwa had seven children (two sons and five daughters).

• Empress of Japan
• Ōmiya Palace

• Connors, Leslie. (1987). The Emperor's Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-war Japanese Politics. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7099-3449-3
• Koyama, Itoko. (1958). Nagako, Empress of Japan (translation of Kogo sama). New York: J. Day Co. OCLC 1251689
• Large, Stephen S. (1992). Emperor Hirohito and Shōwa Japan: Political Biography. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-03203-2

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Empress Kōjun.

• Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun at the Imperial Household Agency website
• BBC News: Japan mourns Empress Nagako
• BBC News: In pictures: Japan's imperial funeral
• Chicago Tribune: photo of Empress Nagako at White House during State Visit in 1975