Princess Mikasa, doyenne of Japan’s imperial family and great-aunt of the current emperor, died on Friday November 15 in Tokyo at the age of 101, the Japanese Imperial Agency announced. She had been hospitalized in March following a stroke and pneumonia, and had been kept under observation ever since, after treatment in an intensive care unit.
From an aristocratic family, Princess Mikasa, born Yuriko Takagi on June 4, 1923, married Prince Mikasa at the age of 18, the younger brother of Emperor Hirohito – the grandfather of the current Emperor Naruhito. Together, they had two daughters and three sons, as well as nine grandchildren. The princess gave birth to her first child, a daughter, in 1944, while Japan was still at war. The imperial couple’s home was burnt down during an air raid, forcing her to live in a shelter with her baby, according to the daily newspaper Asahi.
Emperor Hirohito, commander-in-chief of the Japanese army during its brutal march across Asia in the 1930s and 1940s, delivered a surrender speech on August 15, 1945, a few days after the American atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Prince Mikasa, who died in 2016 at the age of 100, was in favor of the decision to end the war. But a young officer, who was opposed, had visited him to try to change his mind. Princess Mikasa recalled that the atmosphere during this lively discussion was “very frightening”.
The imperial dynasty is threatened
Her life over the following decades was marked by her family’s financial difficulties, with the princess taking care of domestic chores herself. “When I was raising my children, Japanese society was going through a difficult period, and I remember with deep gratitude the number of people, including my husband, who always supported me.”said the princess in a statement issued on the occasion of her 100th birthday in June 2023.
Princess Misaka’s three sons predeceased her, one at the age of 47, while playing squash at the Canadian Embassy. With succession to the throne open only to men, the imperial dynasty is under threat, with only one young heir at present: Emperor Naruhito’s 18-year-old nephew, Prince Hisahito. Daughter of the current Emperor, Princess Aiko, 22, is excluded from the throne under the Imperial Household Act, in force since 1947.