LImperial Princess Mako felt a hell of a burden when she walked through the gate at Tokyo Haneda Airport on November 14th. No red carpet in the corridors, but the departure suddenly had a taste for freedom: direction New York, on the arm of its commoner Kei Komuro, to start a new life, far from the palace, the gossip and the media pressure that had made of her the outcast of the kingdom.
There were a hundred journalists there to watch the start, scrutinize the slightest emotion, a look, a gesture, but Mako remained unmoved behind the mask of rigor, very practical that day to hide her feelings… She refused any interview, gently nods her head with that innate politeness, and rolls her suitcase, in which she slipped for the first time a brand new passport. The only novelty: her hair that she let loose over her shoulders, a cut that contrasts with the corseted and strict style that the court has imposed on her for years. A simple detail, but which sounds like a palace revolution.
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The world of silence
In Japan, being a princess is not a fairy tale, as proved a few years ago by the very long depression of the current Empress Masako, a brilliant diplomat who gave up her career to enter the imperial family, before being crushed by extremely codified rules. The life of the imperial family is watched, confined within a palace fortress, governed by a heavy protocol and archaic rites which stifle any personality. No public speaking, greetings to the crowd behind armored windows and cooking and maintenance classes as a bonus for these ladies…
In this world of silence, women are called to fit the mold: not only can they not reign, but they are condemned to disappear from public life and to put aside their titles and their rights as soon as they are marry a commoner, that is to say upon their marriage since the aristocracy was abolished after the Second World War. It was in this context that the affair arose around the loves of Princess Mako, the eldest daughter of Prince Fumihito of Akishino, brother of the current emperor and first in the order of succession to the throne.
Financial Micmac
For years, Mako kindly ticked all the boxes: studying at the prestigious private institution Gakushuin, majoring in the arts and sciences at ICU, the International Christian University, and then graduating in museography at the university. from Leicester in the UK. But, in 2017, the well-oiled mechanics of com stalled when the princess, very popular with young people, announced her engagement to Kei Komuro, met on the benches of the university.
The young man is inconvenient: he is not from the elite, the conservatives grimace and the popular press is unleashed when she finds out that her mother is embroiled in a real financial mishmash – she is suspected of having extorted money. money to his ex-boyfriend to pay for his son’s studies. The case is scandalous in a country where members of the royal family are expected to remain irreproachable …
The marriage is suddenly delayed, Komuro leaves to pursue his law in the United States, the powerful Imperial Agency tries to extinguish the fire by claiming that the palace is mainly focused on the enthronement of the new emperor, scheduled for 2019. “In l ‘current state, without the understanding of all, it is not possible to proceed to the marriage, recognizes the father of the fiancée, very embarrassed.
Discreet wedding
The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic arranges the family to postpone a little further the sharply criticized nuptials … Meanwhile, faced with this hate campaign, Mako is holding out: after post-traumatic stress and three years of waiting, she manages to marry in October 2021 with Kei Komuro, whom she never gave up. Discreet weddings, far from traditional ceremonies, to avoid any controversy …
Victory of love, victory also against opinion and ancestral rules completely outdated – in comparison, the Windsors have accepted into their clan Kate Middleton, the daughter of a joke and joke merchant, and Meghan Markle, an American mestizo divorced … But the price is paid dearly: Mako has renounced the endowment of more than one million euros given to the former princesses who marry and she preferred exile, far from her family, to escape the judgments of the opinion and the pikes of the press.
Anonymity
For his part, Kei Komuro, who is due to retake his New York State Bar exam next year, has reached an agreement with his mother’s ex-companion to settle the financial dispute that had ignited the powders… Here is Mako ready to trace his own destiny from Big Apple, where her husband rented a modest apartment. Obliged now to earn a living, she could work in a museum in the city, in connection with her university education. And prove that Japanese princesses can also have the soul of a warrior.
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