For the princesses and princesses of Europe, attending various events is a time for them to show their beauty and fashion, and relatively speaking, even under the scrutiny of the public, they can still live their lives freely and happily. In Asian countries, however, the lives of women members of the Japanese royal family are less comfortable, and they must observe many repressive and rigid dogmatic etiquette.
It can be said that the Japanese royal family is a strange and special existence. On the one hand, japan, as a capitalist country, implements a constitutional monarchy, the Japanese emperor himself has no real power, and the Japanese royal family should be at best a "mascot" like many European royal families; But on the other hand, under the influence of feudalism and the Confucian thought dominated by the unique Asian "Cheng Zhu Lixue", to this day, the Japanese royal family still follows the traditional and feudal system, and it is precisely because of this incongruous integration that the tragedy of Empress Masako's life has been caused.
(Japan royal family)
The first half of life: a white swan soaring freely
Empress Naruhito Masako, the empress consort of the 126th Emperor of Japan, was born Masako Owada. Born in Tokyo in 1963 to a family of diplomats, Masako's family was no ordinary civilian family, unlike the "commoner princesses" of Europe. Although she does not have the so-called "aristocratic bloodline", her family is superior, her father is former Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister and Japanese ambassador to the United Nations Owada Hiroshi, and her mother is Senkin, president of the Nitrogen Fertilizer Company, who graduated from Keio University. Due to her father's working relationship, Masako has lived in Japan, the United States, Russia and other countries since she was a child, and her language talent and learning ability are extremely strong, so she has mastered the English, French, Russian, German and Chinese.
(Masako's childhood photo)
Masako is the eldest daughter in the family, and her parents have given her great hopes, allowing her to receive an elite education from an early age. In addition to studying hard, he also sent her to learn baseball, tennis, horseback riding, swimming and other sports. Under the influence of a strong family atmosphere, the 18-year-old Masako lived up to expectations and was successfully admitted to the Economics Department of Harvard University with her clever mind, and graduated with honors. He then went to the University of Tokyo to pursue a Master of Laws degree.
(Masako when she was in school)
After completing her academic journey, Masako decided to follow in her father's footsteps and become a good diplomat. She passed the difficult examination of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and began to work in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Masako as a diplomat should be the happiest stage of her life, she is full of talent and success. She has participated in high-level trade talks; Translated for Shinzo Abe's father, Shintaro Abe, then Minister of Foreign Affairs; She served as a meeting minutes and interpreter for former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone; Later, she was transferred to the North American Department, one of the most important departments of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, to be responsible for the economic and trade negotiations between Japan and the United States.
(Masako as a translator for Noboru Takeshita and the U.S. Secretary of State)
(Masako participates in the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Conference)
At the time, at just 27 years old, Masako became a rising star in Japan's diplomatic circles, and she was considered "the most promising diplomat." This is not only because of her beautiful appearance and excellent education, but also because she is diligent and meticulous in her work and outstanding ability.
(Masako Diplomat period)
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the bubble economy, many women were not considered capable, talented, and qualified to achieve a career, and most of them were considered to be married as soon as possible after graduation to become a housewife. At that time, she was radiant, an image of an intellectual elite woman, like a white swan on the lake, elegant, beautiful, intellectual, outstanding, at that time she was full of beautiful yearning for her future, and all this was completely shattered after she met crown prince Naruhito.
Naruhito's "Forced Marriage"
In 1986, the Japanese royal family held a musical banquet to celebrate the visit of the Spanish princess, when Naruhito, who was still crown prince, met Masako, who had been invited to the banquet as a diplomat, and according to Naruhito's later description of her relatives and friends, she saw Masako "as if she had been struck by an electric shock", and fell in love with Masako at first sight, but the two did not have the opportunity to talk too much that night.
(Naruhito when he was young)
So Naruhito quickly planned a second meeting with Masako, and when the Japan-Britain Association held an exchange meeting, Naruhito invited Masako to attend on the grounds that Masako was proficient in English, and this time Naruhito took the initiative to talk to Masako, but Masako's tone was polite and restrained, obviously he did not think of Naruhito, just ordinary respect and courtesy.
The undead Naruhito planned a third meeting, and he directly invited Masako's family to the palace for a Chinese New Year's Eve, which was unprecedented in the past. Naruhito's perverse behavior attracted the attention of the Imperial Household Agency, who also measured Masako as a "crown princess", and concluded that they did not agree, because Masako's family was a commoner family, and her birth was not "innocent", and Masako was much taller than Naruhito of 1 meter 64 after wearing high heels, which did not meet the royal requirements.
(Masako and Naruhito have a height difference)
Unmoved, Naruhito insisted on meeting masako on a date, and he took the initiative to invite masako to climb mountains, walk, and watch baseball games. After meeting several times, Naruhito proposed to Masako for the first time the idea of marrying.
Naruhito's actions frighten Masako, and she directly refuses. On the one hand, it comes from Masako herself, she knows that once she becomes a princess, she will have to give up everything and can no longer engage in the career she loves; Masako's parents, on the other hand, are adamantly opposed. Although on the surface it may seem like a family to form a family with the royal family, Japanese law prohibits the royal family and its members from participating in politics. This means that if Masako marries into the royal family, Masako's father's political career will end. The royal family on the other side was also fiercely opposed, and they began to step up their efforts to find a suitable candidate for the crown princess.
(At that time, the list of crown princess candidates, Masako was also among them)
Naruhito is not dead-hearted, and he has always been docile, showing surprising stubbornness in the face of marrying Masako. In order to escape Naruhito's courtship, Masako chose to study again and went to Oxford University in the United Kingdom for three years, but she openly denied that she had any ambiguous relationship with Naruhito and explicitly rejected Naruhito's pursuit.
However, Naruhito showed an attitude of "not marrying a non-masako". After Masako went abroad, he began to face the selection of the crown princess in a passive and resistive manner, refusing for various reasons, which dragged on for three years. It wasn't until Masako returned from her studies in England that Naruhito, who was 32 years old at the time, began to seek a relationship again, trying to persuade Masako and Masako's father to agree.
Later on, Naruhito even persuaded his parents, Emperor Akihito and his wife, to persuade Masako to agree, and they sent Masako's predecessor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kensuke Yanagaya, to come forward, but still to no avail.
Six weeks later, Naruhito offered to see Masako again. Until this time, Naruhito, when he made his heart clear to Masako, said, "After entering the imperial family, you will have a lot of uneasiness and worry, but I will do my best to protect you with all my life." Finally impressed by Masako, she hesitated and finally agreed to Naruhito's marriage proposal.
(Masako Naruhito announces marriage)
(Masako says goodbye to her colleagues)
On June 9, 1993, seven years after the two first met, Masako married Naruhito, becoming the second commoner to marry into the Japanese royal family (the first being Masako's mother-in-law, Empress Michiko), and transforming from a promising diplomat to a struggling crown princess.
(Masako Naruhito wedding photo)
The second half of life: embroidered birds trapped on screens
After marriage, Masako initially thought that she could give full play to her diplomatic skills and fluent foreign language ability like many European princesses, helping the Japanese royal family to become a bridge between the royal family and the domestic people, but she naively underestimated the strict and cold rules of the Japanese royal family, and from the moment she married into the royal family, she found herself no longer able to help herself.
First of all, she was issued many strict "bans": Before Naruhito spoke, Masako could not speak, and could not speak for more than Naruhito; She cannot wear shoes taller than Naruhito; Do not wear clothes that are "not in accordance with the rules"; You cannot speak without permission; When diplomatic activities, it is necessary to stand three steps away from Naruhito ... It can be said that the Japanese royal family has formulated harsh regulations for Masako in all aspects of food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and has implemented the idea of male superiority over female inferiority very thoroughly (which is incompatible with the modern society preached by Japan). During Masako's long career as crown princess, she left the palace for fewer than five diplomatic visits.
(Masako after marriage is careful in every move)
Secondly, the Uterine Agency demanded that Masako give birth to a successor as soon as possible. Naruhito was 32 years old when she married, which was an "older young man" compared to the time when all the emperors of Japan took wives, but after marriage, Masako had difficulty getting pregnant after a miscarriage, and she began to be criticized by the Imperial Household Agency and some media for "not being able to perform the duties of a crown princess". After eight years of marriage, Masako gave birth to Princess Aiko, but the pressure on her to bear children increased unabated because the Japanese royal family stipulated that women could not inherit the throne.
(Masako gives birth to her only daughter, Princess Aiko)
Later, the U.S. House began to forbid Masako from attending diplomatic occasions on the grounds that she was "pregnant", and Masako's words and deeds were closely monitored, and she was disciplined for the slightest impropriety. She became more and more silent in public, and in the later stages, she became only able to communicate with Naruhito alone.
In 2003, Masako announced that she was suffering from shingles and needed convalescence, and in the same year she was confirmed to have an indicational disorder. When Naruhito was asked about Masako on his solo visit to Europe, he directly said that "the act of denying Masako's personality based on her qualifications does exist," which immediately caused an uproar in Japan. It is said that the royal family once asked Naruhito to marry again, but Naruhito resolutely refused, and in this day-to-day court life, Masako was left with silence in addition to silence.
(Masako's appearance became increasingly haggard after marriage)
(Weekly reports on Masako's lack of energy)
In 2009, Australian journalist Ben Hills published a book, "Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Dynasty," about Masako's tragic life after marrying into the royal family, criticizing the oppression of Masako by the Japanese royal family. Masako is like a canary raised by the Japanese imperial family, outsiders look pampered and dazzling, but she can no longer fly, can no longer engage in the cause she really loves, only in front of the "pet" to watch and admire, and is powerless to resist all this. The Japanese imperial family is like a "cannibalistic" cage, Masako from the original radiant, unbridled, full of dreams of modern professional women, to the eyes of the eyes, tired, like a puppet queen.
Today, Masako, who has become the empress, is still living in simplicity, but fortunately Naruhito has always fulfilled his pre-marriage promise to Masako, loving and respecting her, and Aiko has gradually grown into an adult, and the family of three supports each other and accompanies each other, and Masako's condition has gradually improved.
(Masako's family of three)
(Masako, now empress)
Zhang Ailing once said in "Jasmine Pieces": "She is not a bird in a cage." The birds in the cage, when the cage is opened, will fly out. She was a bird embroidered on a screen—a white bird in a cloud of gold woven on a gloomy purple satin screen. After many years, the feathers have darkened, the mold has been moldy, the insects have been mothed, and the dead are still dead on the screen. This is perhaps the most accurate illustration of the second half of Princess Masako's life, that the caged canary still has a chance to fly, and the bird on the screen will never be able to get rid of this shackle for the rest of its life."