Mitsuko Aoyama
| Mitsuko Aoyama | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Coudenhove-Kalergi | |
Mitsuko Coudenhove-Kalergi
|
|
| Born |
7 July 1874 Ushigome, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Empire of Japan |
| Died | 27 August 1941 (aged 67) Mödling, Austria, German Reich |
| Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi | |
| House | Coudenhove-Kalergi |
| Father | Kihachi Aoyama |
| Mother | Tsune Aoyama |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Mitsuko, Countess of Coudenhove-Kalergi (German: Mitsuko, Gräfin von Coudenhove-Kalergi; 7 July 1874 – 27 August 1941), formerly known as Mitsu Aoyama (青山みつ?), was one of the first Japanese people to emigrate to Europe, after becoming the wife of an Austrian diplomat, Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi, in Tokyo. She was the mother of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi.
She was born as the daughter of Aoyama family, an antiques and oil dealer in Tokyo. Aoyama family was also a landowner of large estates. Aged 17 she met the Austro-Hungarian diplomat Dr. Count Heinrich von Coudenhove (from 1903, Coudenhove-Kalergi) when she came to help him when his horse slipped on ice (Heinrich often visited her father's shop, not far from the Austrian legation). Heinrich gained her father's permission for her to be employed as a parlour maid in the legation and then (after they fell in love) for them to marry. The latter request was refused, but the couple defied him, marrying on 16 March 1892 in Tokyo with the consent of the Austrian and Japanese foreign ministries. This left her disinherited and banned from her father's house. She became a Catholic baptized by an anti-masonic Catholic priest, Francois A. Ligneul, in Japan. In 1896 she was received at an imperial reception for foreign diplomats' wives by Empress Eishō (as a commoner Mitsuko would never have been granted such an audience, but as a countess and ambassador's wife she was) and again on the end of Heinrich's diplomatic work shortly afterwards.
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