The Imperial Family in 1900. From left to right: Princess Kane, the Crown Princess, Princess Fumi, the Emperor, Princess Yasu, the Empress, the Crown Prince and Princess Tsune.
Kotaigo Shoken also known as Empress Dowager Shōken, was the wife of Emperor Meiji of Japan. She was the first imperial consort to receive the title of both nyōgō and of kōgō (literally, the emperor's wife, translated as "empress consort"), in several hundred years.
Background
Kotaigo Shoken was born in 1859 in Kyoyo, Japan. She was the third daughter of Tadaka Ichijo, Minister of the Left. At first her name was Katsuko. Her official mother was a daughter of Prince Fushimi Kuniie, while the biological mother was Tamiko Shinbata, daughter of the doctor of Ichijo family.
Education
As a child, Princess Masako was somewhat of a prodigy. She was able to read poetry from the Kokin Wakashū by age four and had composed some waka verses of her own by age five.
By age seven, she was able to read some texts in classical Chinese, with some assistance, and was studying Japanese calligraphy.
By age twelve, she had studied the koto and was fond of Noh drama. She had also studied ikebana and the Japanese tea ceremony. Usual for the time, she had also been vaccinated against smallpox. The major obstacle to her eligibility was that she was three years older than Emperor Meiji, but this issue was resolved by changing her official birth date from 1849 to 1850.
Career
The Empress departed from Kyoto on 8 November 1869 for the new capital of Tokyo. In a break from tradition, Emperor Meiji insisted that she, as well as the senior ladies-in-waiting, attend the educational lectures given to the Emperor on a regular basis about conditions in Japan, as well as developments in overseas nations.
On 30 July 1886, the Empress attended the graduation ceremony of the Peeresses School in Western clothing, and on 10 August, she received foreign guests in Western clothing for the first time when hosting a Western Music concert with the Emperor. From this point onward, the Empress and her entourage wore only Western style clothes in public and in January 1887 she issued a memorandum on the subject, contending that traditional Japanese dress was not only unsuited to modern life, but that in fact, Western style dress was closer than the kimono to clothes worn by Japanese women in ancient times.
In the diplomatic field, the Empress hosted the wife of former US President Ulysses S. Grant during his visit to Japan, and was also present for the Emperor's meetings with Hawaiian King Kalākaua in 1881. Later that same year, she helped host the visit of the sons of future British King Edward VII, Prince Albert Victor and Prince George (the future George V), who presented her with a pair of pet wallabies from Australia.
The Empress accompanied her husband to Yokosuka, Kanagawa on 26 November 1886 to observe the new Imperial Japanese Navy cruisers Naniwa and Takachiho firing torpedoes and performing other maneuvers. From 1887, she was often at the Emperor’s side, in his official visits to schools, factories, and even Army maneuvers. When Emperor Meiji fell ill in 1888, she took his place in welcoming envoys from Siam, launching warships and visiting Tokyo Imperial University.
In 1889, she accompanied Emperor Meiji on his official visit to Nagoya and Kyoto. While the Emperor continued on to visit naval bases at Kure and Sasebo, she went to Nara, to worship at the principal Shinto shrines.
During the war, after the Emperor moved his military headquarters from Tokyo to Hiroshima to be closer to the lines of communications with his troops, the Empress, traveling together with his two favorite concubines, joined him in Hiroshima from March 1895. While in Hiroshima, she insisted on visiting hospitals where wounded soldiers were recovering every other day during her stay.
She was proclaimed Empress Dowager upon the demise of Emperor Meiji in 1912. She moved to the Aoyama Palace. She became critically ill with stricture of the heart at the Numazu Imperial Villa (1914), returned to Tokyo and died at the Aoyama Palace on April 11. Her mausoleum is located at Fushimi-Momoyama near Kyoto.
Achievements
Connections
Although she was the first Japanese empress consort to play a public role, it soon became clear that Empress Haruko was unable to bear children. Emperor Meiji had fifteen children by five official ladies-in-waiting. As it had long been the custom in Japanese monarchy, she adopted Yoshihito, her husband's eldest son by a concubine.