, born , was a member of the

Imperial House of Japan The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...

, the wife of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and the mother of

Shigeko Higashikuni , born , was the wife of Prince Morihiro Higashikuni and eldest daughter of Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun. She was the eldest sister to Japan's Emperor Emeritus Akihito. Biography Princess Shigeko was born at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo whil ...

, Princess Sachiko Hisa-nomiya,

Kazuko Takatsukasa , formerly , was the third daughter of Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun. She was an elder sister to the former Emperor of Japan, Emperor Akihito. She married Toshimichi Takatsukasa on 21 May 1950. As a result, she gave up her imperial title and ...

, Atsuko Ikeda, the Emperor Emeritus

Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. B ...

, Prince Masahito Hitachi-nomiya and

Takako Shimazu , born , is a former member of the Imperial House of Japan. She is the fifth and youngest daughter of Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun, and the youngest sister of the Emperor Emeritus of Japan, Akihito. She married Hisanaga Shimazu on 3 Marc ...

. Her posthumous name is ''Kōjun'' (香淳), which means "fragrant purity". Empress Kōjun was empress consort (皇后 ''kōgō'') from 25 December 1926 to 7 January 1989, making her the longest-serving empress consort in

Japanese history The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventi ...

.Downer, Lesely
Obituary: "Nagako, Dowager Empress of Japan,"
''The Guardian'' (London). 17 June 2000.

Early life

Princess Nagako was born in Kuni-no-miya's family home in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, Japan on 6 March 1903, into one of the '' Ōke'' branches of the

, 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 ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

s'', the feudal or military aristocracy. 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

.Kristof, Nicholas D
"Dowager Empress Nagako, Hirohito's Widow, Dies at 97"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. 17 June 2000. 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 Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

(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.

Marriage and children

Nagako was betrothed to her distant cousin the Crown Prince

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

, 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.Both Nagako and Hirohito were distant cousins twice over: fourteenth cousins thrice removed by Prince Fushimi Sadafusa of the

Fushimi-no-miya The is the oldest of the four shinnōke, branches of the Imperial Family of Japan which were eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne in the event that the main line should die out. The Fushimi-no-miya was founded by Prince Yoshihito, ...

cadet branch of the imperial house, and tenth cousins once removed through Bōjirō Toshimasa (1582–1609), a courtier and noble (''

kuge The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th century until the rise of the Kamak ...

''). 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. He eventually selected Nagako. Princess Nagako married the Crown Prince Hirohito on 26 January 1924 and became the Crown Princess of Japan. She became the

empress of Japan The Empress of Japan is the title given to the wife of the Emperor of Japan or a female ruler in her own right. In Japanese, the empress consort is called . The current empress consort is Empress Masako, who ascended the throne with her husband o ...

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 Issue or issues may refer to: Publishing * ''Issue'' (company), a mobile publishing company * ''Issue'' (magazine), a monthly Korean comics anthology magazine * Issue (postal service), a stamp or a series of stamps released to the public * '' ...

). 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 , now the emeritus emperor. In all, Hirohito and Nagako had seven children, five daughters and two sons. (see

)

Life as the Empress of Japan

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. Her role required her to attend special ceremonies such as those for the 2600th anniversary of the legendary foundation of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

in 1940 or the conquest of Singapore in 1942. 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.

Life as empress dowager

After the Emperor's death on 7 January 1989, she became

empress dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother) () is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultural sphere. The title was a ...

. At that time, she was in failing health herself and did not attend her husband's funeral. 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. Musashino-no-higashi-nomisasagi

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 The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...

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

Musashi Imperial Graveyard is a mausoleum complex of the Japanese Emperors in Nagabusa-machi, Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan. Located within a forest in the western suburbs of Tokyo and named for the ancient Musashi Province, the site contains the mausolea of Emperor Tais ...

Honours

National

Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Meiji * JPN Hokan-sho 1Class BAR

Grand Mistress Paulownia Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown

Foreign

Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

) *

Knight of the

Order of the Elephant The Order of the Elephant ( da, Elefantordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry and is Denmark's highest-ranked honour. It has origins in the 15th century, but has officially existed since 1693, and since the establishment of constitutional ...

(

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

) *

GER Bundesverdienstkreuz 9 Sond des Grosskreuzes

Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Special Class (

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

) *

Dame Grand Cross of the

Order of the Redeemer The Order of the Redeemer ( el, Τάγμα του Σωτήρος, translit=Tágma tou Sotíros), also known as the Order of the Saviour, is an order of merit of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the ...

(

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

) *

Member of the Most Glorious Order of the Benevolent Ruler (

Kingdom of Nepal The Kingdom of Nepal ( ne, नेपाल अधिराज्य), also known as the Gorkha Empire ( ne, गोरखा अधिराज्य) or Asal Hindustan ( ne, असल हिन्दुस्तान)(), was a Hindu king ...

) *

Order of Isabella the Catholic - Sash of Collar

Dame Grand Cross of the

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...

(

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

) *

Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

) *

Order of the Royal House of Chakri (Thailand) ribbon

Dame of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri (

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

) *

Order of the Crown of Tonga - ribbon bar

Dame Grand Cross with Collar of the

Order of the Crown of Tonga The Royal Order of the Crown of Tonga ('' Tongan: Fakalangilangi 'o Kalauni 'o Tonga'') is an Order of Merit awarded for exceptional services to Tonga and the Crown of Tonga. History It was established 16 April 1913 by George Tupou II to rewar ...

(

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

)

Issue

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

Ancestry

Notes

Citations

References

* Connors, Leslie. (1987)
''The Emperor's Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-war Japanese Politics.''
London: Routledge. * Koyama, Itoko. (1958)
''Nagako, Empress of Japan''
(translation of ''Kogo sama''). New York: J. Day Co. * Large, Stephen S. (1992)
''Emperor Hirohito and Shōwa Japan: Political Biography.''
London: Routledge.

External links

at the Imperial Household Agency website
BBC News: Japan mourns Empress NagakoBBC News: In pictures: Japan's imperial funeral
* Chicago Tribune
photo of Empress Nagako at White House during State Visit in 1975
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kojun 1903 births 2000 deaths People from Tokyo Japanese empresses Kuni-no-miya Hirohito Grand Cordons (Imperial Family) of the Order of the Precious Crown Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Dames Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic