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Empress Nagako

Kōjun
Empress Kojun 1941-face.jpg
The Empress in 1941
Empress consort of Japan
Tenure 25 December 1926 –
7 January 1989
Enthronement 10 November 1928
Born Princess Nagako (良子女王)
(1903-03-06)6 March 1903
Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Died 16 June 2000(2000-06-16) (aged 97)
Fukiage Ōmiya Palace, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Burial 25 July 2000
Musashi Imperial Graveyard, Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan
Spouse Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa
Issue Shigeko Higashikuni
Sachiko, Princess Hisa
Kazuko Takatsukasa
Atsuko Ikeda
Akihito, Emperor of Japan
Masahito, Prince Hitachi
Takako Shimazu
House Imperial House of Japan
Father Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi
Mother Shimazu Chikako
Religion Shinto
Styles of
Empress Kōjun
Imperial Seal of Japan.svg
Reference style Her Majesty
Spoken style Your Majesty
Alternative style Ma'am

Empress Kōjun (香淳皇后, Kōjun-kōgō), born Princess Nagako (良子女王, Nagako Joō, 6 March 1903 – 16 June 2000), was the wife of Emperor Shōwa of Japan. She was the mother of the present emperor, Akihito.

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

Princess Nagako was born in Tokyo, Japan, into one of the Ōke branches of the Imperial House of Japan, which are 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. 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.

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 Following her betrothal at age fourteen, Nagako was withdrawn from this school and began a six-year training program aimed at developing the accomplishments deemed necessary for an empress.

Nagako was betrothed to her fourteenth cousin thrice removed (through Prince Fushimi Sadafusa's patrilineal descent), Prince Hirohito (1901–1989), at a very young age, in a match arranged by their parents, in the manner which was usual in Japanese society at that time. Her lineage and her father's unblemished military career were the major considerations. In January 1919, the engagement of Princess Nagako to her distant cousin, the then-Crown Prince Hirohito (later Emperor Shōwa), was announced. In a step away from tradition, Hirohito was allowed to choose his own bride. Nagako herself had no choice in the matter. 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.


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