Empress Kōjun 香淳皇后 |
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The Empress in 1941
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Empress consort of Japan | |||||
Tenure | 25 December 1926 – 7 January 1989 |
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Enthronement | 10 November 1928 | ||||
Born |
Tokyo Prefecture, Japan |
6 March 1903||||
Died | 16 June 2000 Fukiage Ōmiya Palace, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan |
(aged 97)||||
Burial | 25 July 2000 Musashi Imperial Graveyard, Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan |
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Spouse | Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa | ||||
Issue |
Shigeko, Princess Teru Sachiko, Princess Hisa Kazuko, Princess Taka Atsuko, Princess Yori Akihito, Emperor of Japan Masahito, Prince Hitachi Takako, Princess Suga |
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House | Imperial House of Japan | ||||
Father | Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi | ||||
Mother | Shimazu Chikako | ||||
Religion | Shinto |
Full name | |
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Nagako (良子?) |
Styles of Empress Kōjun |
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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.