The Emperor of Japan is a god-like presence among the Japanese people. They are said to be descendants of the god Amaterasu, so in the hearts of the Japanese, they are sacred and inviolable. Even after the end of World War II, although they had no name and no power, they still had a very high status among the people.
The Japanese emperor has continued the history of more than 2,000 years, and the Japanese emperor has been passed down to 126 generations. In the history of the Japanese emperor's empress, there are only two commoner empresses. One is Empress Michiko of the 125th Emperor Akihito, and the other is Empress Masako of the 126th Emperor Naruhito.
The sparrow becomes a phoenix, which means great luck for many civilian girls. But what is surprising is that these two commoner queens who married into the palace felt very unhappy, and even had a tendency to depression.
(Michiko' s former teru)
Let's start with the first commoner empress, Michiko.
In 1934, in order to split China and achieve the goal of invading China, Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo after invading and occupying the three eastern provinces. With the support of Japan, Puyi once again sat on the throne and became the Kant Emperor.
It was also in this year that a beautiful girl named Michiko Shoda was born in Tokyo, Japan.
Although Masada Michiko was not from an aristocratic background, her family had been a great industrialist for generations. Not only did he found Japan's largest publicly traded company, nissin Mill, but also because of his emphasis on education, he was home to a president of Osaka University, a professor of geology and medicine at the University of Tokyo. Therefore, Michiko's family can also be regarded as an elite family.
Michiko has been very well-behaved since she was a child, and in school, she not only ranked among the best in her studies, but also was very enthusiastic about school activities. She is both excellent in character and learning, and naturally gets a good review.
In 1951, the 18-year-old Crown Prince Akihito, who had grown up to be old enough to talk about marriage, put the selection of concubines on the agenda.
Choosing a princess has always been a big deal. For reasons of descent, it was generally chosen among the old royal families. In this way, the scope of the concubine selection is much narrower. However, because the royal woman of about the same age is either already engaged, or she is too restricted to marry into the royal family. Therefore, there are very few women that Crown Prince Akihito can choose.
Since there was no ideal marriage partner, this made Crown Prince Akihito quite unhappy.
However, a tennis open match solved the marriage of Crown Prince Akihito.
In 1957, Karuizawa, a tourist mecca, hosted a grand tennis tournament.
Crown Prince Akihito and Michiko both signed up for the match and became rivals.
As the two were on an equal footing, the competition was intense. In the end, it took 2 hours for Michiko to win.
Crown Prince Akihito fell in love with the elegant Michiko at first sight. After that, he often used the excuse of playing tennis to enhance his relationship with her.
In 1858, as their relationship gradually got on track, Crown Prince Akihito formally requested to marry Michiko.
When this request was made, it was immediately opposed by the whole country. Some people even sneered that the crown prince of a country actually casually found a player on the court to be a princess.
In fact, not only were these conservative royalists opposed, but Michiko's father did not approve of the marriage. He was very worried that when Michiko married into the imperial family, she would not be able to withstand the constraints of the imperial family.
However, Crown Prince Akihito was very determined, and finally persuaded his father, Emperor Showa, and received his support, so Michiko became Japan's first civilian crown princess.
(Michiko and Crown Prince Akihito)
However, after Marrying into the Imperial Palace, Michiko encountered unprecedented pressure.
On the one hand, because Empress Liangzi was not satisfied with her origins, she was always harsh and harsh. The female officials and noblewomen in the palace, in order to please Empress Liangzi, were also very critical of her origins and did not respect her.
On the other hand, when Michiko and the Emperor's family attend public events, they are blamed for everything they say or do. For example, when Michiko was traveling with Crown Prince Akihito, she asked two more questions, and the female official next to her would definitely accuse her of not having a highness in her eyes. Even if she asked Empress Liangzi for two more words, she would be stopped by the female officials and asked her not to be an expert in front of the empress.
In this way, Michiko has suffered from all kinds of discrimination and bullying for a long time, and her inner grievances can be imagined. Therefore, she once lamented that she felt both difficult and wronged in the palace, often felt difficult to adapt, and even often had a feeling of suffocation.
In this environment, the temperament of Michiko, who has always been intelligent and sunny, has changed dramatically, and her face is constantly shrouded in a layer of sadness, and at the same time she becomes more and more silent. Due to the seriousness of the problem, it was later determined that Michiko suffered from aphasia due to depression under the diagnosis of the doctor. Despite multiple treatments, the effect is not obvious.
Although Michiko maintained a rebellious attitude in the imperial palace, Michiko fought against the old customs of the imperial family.
At that time, Michiko gave birth to two sons and a daughter after marrying Crown Prince Akihito.
According to royal regulations, these three children must be separated from their parents shortly after birth and raised by a nursing mother.
For Michiko, this is tantamount to taking away her last hope, so she fights hard.
Fortunately, Crown Prince Akihito can still work with her on this matter. Coupled with the fact that Emperor Showa was a very open person, she eventually won custody.
After talking about Michiko, let's talk about Masako.
(Masako Former Teru)
Compared to Michiko, Masako is more independent and confident.
Masako's father was a diplomat, and due to her work, Masako lived and studied with her father around the world from an early age, and soon she mastered 5 Chinese words.
In addition, Masako also studied for degrees at Harvard, Oxford and other universities, and then she was admitted to her father's Ministry of Foreign Affairs with excellent results and became an intern. Naturally, with her abilities, she would soon become a female diplomat.
However, at a concert, the beautiful and confident Masako is favored by Crown Prince Naruhito, so Naruhito repeatedly creates opportunities to get along with Masako.
Crown Prince Naruhito also repeatedly asked his father, who had been promoted to Emperor Akihito, to invite Masako's family to the imperial palace.
Crown Prince Naruhito's actions were soon discovered by the media, so Crown Prince Naruhito proposed to Masako.
However, Masako, who was bent on inheriting her father's business, knew that by marrying Crown Prince Naruhito, she would lose her career, so she rejected Crown Prince Naruhito's marriage proposal.
Despite this, Crown Prince Naruhito made up his mind that she would not marry. Therefore, he has not given up on launching a fierce pursuit offensive against Masako.
In fact, Masako's father was also very opposed to Masako marrying Crown Prince Naruhito. Crown Prince Naruhito, on the one hand, constantly expressed his love to Masako, and on the other hand, he had to find a way to change Masako's father's thoughts.
In the end, Masako's father gave the autonomy of the marriage to his daughter Masako, saying that she would make her own decisions.
Crown Prince Naruhito lasted 6 years and finally touched Masako's heart, which made her a beautiful return.
After Masako became the crown princess, Japanese women cheered. They believe that Masako will represent professional women, and that she has been educated in the West almost from an early age, so she will definitely bring open and advanced Western ideas into the strict japanese imperial family.
However, Masako's performance made everyone very dissatisfied. After she married into the palace, she changed her professional clothes, put on the palace dress of the princess, and became a courteous and humble princess. And she never spoke in public for years.
(Crown Prince Naruhito and Masako)
In addition, the public also found that in all the royal activities, Masako has always adhered to the royal system and never crossed the thunder pond half a step. For example, when traveling with Crown Prince Naruhito, she is always three steps behind Crown Prince Naruhito, which is also the most standardized distance between the royal couple in the Japanese imperial family.
Masako's performance greatly disappointed the people. But the reason why she was like this was related to what happened to her when she first entered the palace.
For example, during her marriage to Crown Prince Naruhito, because she spoke 7 seconds more than Crown Prince Naruhito, she was reprimanded by members of the royal family, accusing her of being "too disrespectful."
For example, the members of the imperial family did not value Masako's high education and her abilities, but instead asked her to learn music, calligraphy, and court etiquette. Despite her hard work, gossip about her in the palace kept breaking out.
In addition to these tedious studies, Masako also had to face the problem of constant attention to whether she was pregnant or not.
In everyone's opinion, although Masako is good at diplomacy, this is not important, what is important is that she must quickly give birth to an heir to the throne.
In addition, Masako was also blocked from communicating with the outside world, and even returning to her mother's house became a luxury.
The delay in getting pregnant made Masako's life in the imperial family extremely difficult. Under heavy pressure, Masako suffers from depression and has to undergo systematic treatment.
In 2010, after an eight-year marriage, Masako finally gave birth to a little princess for the imperial family.
However, because she was unable to give birth to the crown prince who succeeded to the throne, the imperial family and the imperial household agency in charge of the imperial family constantly pressured her to have a second child quickly.
At this time, Masako was nearly forty years old. Apparently, this pressure made her almost fall into a desperate situation, so that her depression was afraid that it would be difficult to have a chance to get better.
Michiko and Masako were both excellent Japanese women, but due to their origins and inability to give birth to heirs, they suffered various spiritual tortures from the imperial family. It seems that marrying into the Japanese Imperial Family is really not a fortunate thing.
(Reference materials: Empress Heisei Taira Minen: Empress Michiko, Princess Masako: Kikuhana Dynasty Prisoners)