Tomoshibi Light: Collected Poetry by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko (English and Japanese Edition)
(Japan's Imperial line is thought to be the oldest in the ...)
Japan's Imperial line is thought to be the oldest in the world, and its associations with poetry can be traced back to its very beginnings. For centuries the Japanese court has patronized the poetic art and participated in the composition of the traditional native verse form known as the waka. The great Imperial poetry anthologies of earlier centuries defined the standards of excellence in Japanese poetry, featuring the contributions of the most gifted Japanese poets, among them many Emperors and Empresses as well as other members of the Imperial family. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko inherit this remarkable legacy and have preserved it with personal enthusiasm and literary mastery. Tomoshibi, which may be translated as "Light", is a collection of their verse, published in Japanese in 1986 and appearing here for the first time in English. As Crown Prince and Princess before their enthronement in 1990, the Emperor and Empress traveled extensively as ambassadors of good will for the Japanese people. Many of the 306 poems collected here were composed during their travels and reflect foreign climes and scenes in a fascinating manner. Other poems were composed for the annual New Year's Poetry Reading, and still others were composed to mark special events in the Japanese calendar or to record recollections of remarkable people. Painstakingly translated and annotated, the poems in Tomoshibi are indeed illuminating, revealing not only the depth and resonance of the Japanese poetic tradition but also of the characters and sensibilities of the Emperor and Empress with the immediacy that is poetry's special gift. "It is our hope," writes one of the editors of the collection, "that this English translation may lead to a better understanding of the Emperor and Empress, as also of Japan and its people. For it is their cultural traditions that, reflected in the literary activities of the Imperial family, reveal Japan as a land where beauty of spirit is expressed in song."
Akihito is the former Emperor of Japan. He succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne upon the death of his father Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) on 7 January 1989. According to Japan's traditional order of succession, he was the 125th member of the world's oldest reigning dynasty.
Background
Akihito is the fifth child and first son of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako. Akihito means "shining pinnacle of virtue," and Tsugunomiya means "prince of the august succession and enlightened benevolence."
The eldest son and fifth child of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako, Akihito was born on December 23, 1932 in Tokyo. As was case with crown princes before him, he was removed from his parents at the age of three and raised in an Imperial nursery and looked over his own doctors, nursemaids and teachers.
Akihito was born the year after Japan invaded Manchuria. He spent World War II as a privileged evacuee and was in the mountains of Nikko about 120 kilometers north of Tokyo.
Education
He was in the sixth grade of elementary school when World War II ended. Some of his most cherished moments as a child he has said was time spent with his father at the royal seaside retreat in Hayama, collecting sea life specimens from tidal pools.
Akihito studied at Tokyo Peer's School (Gakushuin elementary and secondary school ). One of his classmates was Yoko Ono.
He was educated under the guidance of a former university president and given special classes on Western thinking and manners by a private tutor named Elizabeth Vining, a Quaker schoolteacher from Philadelphia. Akihito studied with her from 1946 to 1950 and was known by the nickname “Jimmy."
He graduated from Gakushuin University, where he studied political science and economics from 1952 to 1956.
Akihito was invested as the Crown Prince after his Coming-of-Age Ceremony in 1952.
Akihito was heir-apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne from the moment of his birth. His formal Investiture as Crown Prince (立太子礼 Rittaishi-no-rei) was held at the Tokyo Imperial Palace on 10 November 1952. In June 1953 Akihito represented Japan at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London.
Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko made official visits to thirty-seven countries. As an Imperial prince, Akihito compared the role of Japanese royalty to that of a robot. He expressed the desire to help bring the Imperial family closer to the people of Japan.
Upon the death of Emperor Hirohito on 7 January 1989, Akihito acceded (senso) to the throne, with an enthronement ceremony taking place (sokui) on 12 November 1990. In 1998, during a state visit to the United Kingdom, he was invested with the UK Order of the Garter.
On 23 December 2001, during his annual birthday meeting with reporters, the Emperor, in response to a reporter's question about tensions with Korea, remarked that he felt a kinship with Koreans and went on to explain that, in the Shoku Nihongi, the mother of Emperor Kammu (736–806) is related to Muryeong of Korea, King of Baekje, a fact that was considered taboo.
Emperor Akihito underwent surgery for prostate cancer on 14 January 2003.
On 6 September 2006, the Emperor celebrated the birth of his first grandson, Prince Hisahito, the third child of the Emperor's younger son. Prince Hisahito is the first male heir born to the Japanese imperial family in 41 years (since his father Prince Akishino) and could avert a possible succession crisis as the Emperor's elder son, the Crown Prince Naruhito, has only one daughter, Princess Aiko. Under Japan's male-only succession law, Princess Aiko is not eligible for the throne. The birth of Prince Hisahito could mean that proposed changes to the law to allow Aiko to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne will not go through after being temporarily shelved following the announcement of Princess Kiko's third pregnancy in February 2006. The supporters of changes criticized the current law as it placed a burden on the few aging males old enough to perform royal duties as females left the family.
Later in 2011 he was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia. In February 2012 it was announced that the Emperor would be having a coronary examination; he underwent successful heart bypass surgery on 18 February 2012.
On 13 July 2016, national broadcaster NHK reported that the Emperor intended to abdicate in favor of his eldest son Crown Prince Naruhito within a few years, citing his age; an abdication within the Imperial Family has not occurred since Emperor Kōkaku in 1817. However, senior officials within the Imperial Household Agency denied that there was any official plan for the monarch to abdicate. Abdication by the Emperor required an amendment to the Imperial Household Law, which had no provisions for such a move. On 8 August 2016, the Emperor gave a rare televised address, where he emphasized his advanced age and declining health; this address was interpreted as an implication of his intention to abdicate.
On 19 May 2017, the bill that would allow Akihito to abdicate was issued by the Japanese government's cabinet. On 8 June 2017, the National Diet passed a one-off bill allowing Akihito to abdicate, and for the government to begin arranging the process of handing over the position to Crown Prince Naruhito. The Japanese government announced in December 2017 that Akihito would abdicate on 30 April 2019. On 18 December 2017, the Imperial Household Agency confirmed that Akihito would move to Akasaka Palace upon abdication.
(Japan's Imperial line is thought to be the oldest in the ...)
Politics
Emperor Akihito has been credited with completing the transformation of Japan's royal family, in the words of the Times of London, from “a controversial relic of war and dictatorship to a symbol of peace and anti-militarism” and re-createding “his family as emblems of middle-class liberalism” and keeping “at bay conservative ultranationalists who would like to hijack the Emperor as the vehicle of a right-wing revival."
The impeccable behavior expected f the Emperor and the middle class lifestyle adopted by the Imperial family are viewed by some as a way of saying thank you for simply being able to exist and not being abolished as many outside of Japan would have liked after World War II. “Unless the overwhelming majority feel comfortable, this system could be in trouble” within Japan, an insider told the Times of London. “They have to prove the existence of the monarchy means something - it's a conscious agenda for them. For that purpose their solution is to work hard."
Views
In response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima I nuclear crisis, the Emperor made a historic televised appearance urging his people not to give up hope and to help each other. The Emperor and Empress also made a visit on Wednesday, 30 March 2011 to a temporary shelter housing refugees of the disaster, in order to inspire hope in the people. This kind of event is also extremely rare, though in line with the Emperor's attempts to bring the Imperial family closer to the people.
Peace and anti-militarism have been major themes of Emperor Akihito career. He has made a point of visiting places associated with the horrors of war such as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Okinawa and Saipan. On visits to China and South Korea he has expressed regret over the suffering inflicted by the Japanese during World War II’something which does not go down well with ultra-nationalists.
Membership
Ichthyological Society Japan
Linnean Society of London (foreign, 1980, honorary, 1986)
Zoological Society London (honorary 1992)
Research Institute Natural Sci. Argentina (honorary 1997)
Research Associate of Australian Museum (honorary).
Personality
Like his father, Akihito prefers to study fish to performing royal duties. He has published 38 peer-reviewed scholarly papers on gobies in the Japanese Journal of Ichthyology and other academic journals since 1967. Gobies are small fish found in the moats of the Imperial Palace, and in lakes, coastal areas and reefs around the word. A paper he wrote in 1994 was entitled “The Importance of Morphological Characteristics in Gobie Phylogeny". The Empress is also a published author.
Emperor Akihito is regarded as the world's top authority on gobies, a family of fish that includes more than 2,000 species. Much of his works has been devoted to distinguishing between the difficult-to-distinguish goby species through comparisons of minute details of the fish's shoulder blades. Akihito spends a great deal of time looking at specimens under a microscope in his palace laboratory.
The Exyrias akihito is a species of goby named after the Emperor. A bottom feeder, it is 10 centimeters long a and has big bug eyes and orange speckles on its translucent body.
The Emperor and Empress both have an interest in Western classical music. Sometimes the Emperor plays the piano accompanied by the Empress on cello. Akihito is also a pretty good tennis player. He plays a steady baseline game and once beat the first U.S. President George Bush 6-3, 6-3 on the palace courts.
Akihito is also a committed environmentalist. He speaks out on environmental issues, and is particularly interested in biodiversity. He has insisted that large parts of the Imperial palace ground be allowed to grow wild and invited entomologists to catalogue insect species that live there. A palace official told National Geographic, “In his mind a good environment is very important to human happiness. And he has also made a connection between environmental concerns and world peace. There must be peace that will enable people to work together to maintain and improve the environment."
Quotes from others about the person
One official told National Geographic, “The war and the period after it weigh heavy on the Emperor's mind. He is mindful of those who suffered in the war, and he tries to console them by visiting places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa."
Explaining the Emperor's passion for biology, The Grand Chamberlain said “His duties inevitably involve political questions or government. In the natural sciences there is none of that...He has contacts with scientists who also pursue the truth and tell him he's wrong, regardless of whether he's the Emperor or not."
Peter Miller, an emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, told the Times of London, “He has made a very useful contribution, and I'm not saying that because he's the Emperor. I have referenced his papers myself. I doubt there are more than a dozen scientists in the world who can match his expertise."
Connections
In August 1957, he met Michiko Shōda on a tennis court at Karuizawa near Nagano. The Imperial Household Council (a body composed of the Prime Minister of Japan, the presiding officers of the two houses of the Diet of Japan, the Chief Justice of Japan, and two members of the Imperial family) formally approved the engagement of the Crown Prince to Michiko Shōda on 27 November 1958. At that time, the media presented their encounter as a real "fairy tale", or the "romance of the tennis court".
The announcement about the then-Crown Prince Akihito's engagement and marriage to the then-Ms. Michiko Shōda drew opposition from traditionalist groups, because Shōda came from a Roman Catholic family. Although Shōda was never baptized, she was educated in Catholic schools and seemed to share the faith of her parents. Rumors also speculated that Empress Kōjun had opposed the engagement. After the death of Empress Kōjun in 2000, Reuters reported that she was one of the strongest opponents of her son's marriage, and that in the 1960s, she had driven her daughter-in-law and grandchildren to depression by persistently accusing her of not being suitable for her son.
He is the first Japanese crown prince to marry a commoner, breaking more than 2,600 years of tradition. The engagement ceremony took place on 14 January 1959, and the marriage on 10 April 1959.
The Emperor and Empress have three children: sons Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan (born 23 February 1960 at Imperial Household Agency Hospital in Tokyo Imperial Palace ) and Fumihito, Prince Akishino (born 30 November 1965 at Imperial Household Agency Hospital in Tokyo Imperial Palace) and daughter Mrs. Sayako Kuroda (born 18 April 1969 at Imperial Household Agency Hospital, Tokyo Imperial Palace).