, born , is a former 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 ...

. She is the fifth and youngest daughter of

Emperor Shōwa 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 ...

and

Empress Kōjun , born , was a member of the Imperial House of Japan, the wife of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and the mother of Shigeko Higashikuni, Princess Sachiko Hisa-nomiya, Kazuko Takatsukasa, Atsuko Ikeda, the Emperor Emeritus Akihito, Prince Masahito ...

, and the youngest sister of the Emperor Emeritus of Japan,

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. Bo ...

. She married Hisanaga Shimazu on 3 March 1960. As a result, she gave up her imperial title and left the

Japanese Imperial Family 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 ...

, as required by law.

Biography

Prince Masahito and Princess Takako 1952-12

Princess Takako was born at the

Tokyo Imperial Palace The is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the where the Emperor has his living quarters, the where va ...

. Her childhood appellation was . As with her elder sisters, she was not raised by her biological parents, but by a succession of court ladies at a separate palace built for her and her sisters in the

Marunouchi Marunouchi () is a commercial district of Tokyo located in Chiyoda between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning "inside the circle", derives from its location within the palace's outer moat. It is also Tokyo's financial di ...

district of Tokyo. She graduated from the Gakushuin Peers School, and was also tutored along with her siblings in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

by an American tutor, Elizabeth Grey Vining during the

American occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

following

World War II 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 opposin ...

. Princess Takako graduated from Gakushuin University Women's College with a degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

in March 1957. On 10 March 1960, Princess Takako wed Hisanaga Shimazu (born 29 March 1934,

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 37.468 ...

), the son of the late Count Hisanori Shimazu and (at the time) an analyst at the

Japan Export-Import Bank The , JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency that was created on October 1, 1999, through the merger of the Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). JBIC became the in ...

(JEXIM). They married in a Tokyo restaurant in a ceremony attended by Hirohito, Empress Nagako, and Akihito. The couple were introduced by common acquaintances at the Gakushuin. They shared a common interest in the music of Perez Prado. Upon her marriage, the Princess relinquished her membership in the Imperial Family and adopted her husband's surname, in accordance with the 1947

Imperial Household Law is a statute in Japanese law that governs the line of imperial succession, the membership of the imperial family, and several other matters pertaining to the administration of the Imperial Household. In 2017, the National Diet changed the law ...

. Described by Western media sources at the time as a "commoner bank clerk," the groom was actually a grandson of the last ''

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

'' of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

Shimazu Tadayoshi was a ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of Satsuma Province during Japan's Sengoku period. He was born into the Mimasaka Shimazu family (伊作島津家), which was part of the Shimazu clan, but after his father Shimazu Yoshihisa died, his mother ma ...

, and thus a maternal first cousin to Empress Kōjun, making the bride and groom first cousins once removed. Takako and her husband had one son, Yoshihisa Shimazu, who was born on 5 April 1962. In 1963, three years after her marriage, she narrowly escaped from an attempted

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

. Due to extensive media coverage, the location of the couple's home was common knowledge, as was her $500,000 marriage dowry (in Japan, the bride is given a sum of money for her marriage). A member of the criminal group tipped off the police before the kidnapping could occur. Hisanaga Shimazu pursued a thirty-year career with JEXIM, including postings to

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

accompanied by his wife. He became a member of the Board of Directors of the

Sony Corporation , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

upon his retirement from the bank in 1987, served as executive director of the Sony Foundation for Science Education from 1994 to 2001, and is currently research director of the

Yamashina Institute for Ornithology The is a non-profit scientific research organization in Japan, specializing in ornithology. History The Yamashina Institute for Ornithology was founded by Dr. Yoshimaro Yamashina at his home in Shibuya, Tokyo as a private museum to store his co ...

. The former Princess has made numerous appearances on Japanese television as a commentator on world events, and is also on the Board of Directors of the

Prince Hotels The is the name of a hotel chain company headquartered in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Seibu Holdings, Inc. Together with Seibu Railway, Prince Hotels is the core company of Seibu Group. Overview During the Allied occupati ...

chain.

Honours

National honours

* Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Precious Crown The is a Japanese order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. Since the Order of the Rising Sun at that time was an Order for men, it was established as an Order for women. Originally the order had five classes, but on Ap ...

Ancestry

Gallery

File:Empress Kojun and Princesses.jpg, Empress Kōjun holds Princess Takako during the festivities for the Girls' Day, c. 1940 Image:Showa-family1941 12 7.jpg, Emperor Shōwa's family in 1941 File:Crown Prince Akihito and sisters1950-9.jpg, Princess Takako with her brother, Prince Akihito, and her sister, Princess Atsuko, in September 1950 File:Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Suga in front of the Prince Sedan AISH-II in 1954.jpg, Princess Takako with her older brother

Crown Prince 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. Bor ...

in front of his

Prince Sedan The Prince Sedan was a Japanese compact executive car made from 1952 until 1957 by the Tama Motor Company (renamed the Prince Motor Company in November 1952), which was one of the successors of the Tachikawa Aircraft Company. It was replaced by t ...

in 1954

Notes

References

*Foreign Affairs Association of Japan, ''The Japan Year Book'' (Tokyo: Kenkyusha Press, 1939–40, 1941–42, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1947–48). *Takie Sugiyama Lebra, ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). *Ben-ami Shillony, ''Enigma of the Emperors: Sacred Subservience in Japanese History'' (Kent, U.K.: Global Oriental, 2006). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shimazu, Takako 1939 births Living people Japanese princesses Japanese Shintoists Shimazu clan People from Tokyo Gakushuin University alumni Grand Cordons (Imperial Family) of the Order of the Precious Crown